B. Thomas Golisano Library: New Books

Farm Hands

2011-10-02T14:56:00.000-07:00

TITLE: Farm Hands
AUTHOR: Tom Rivers
PAGES: 153
CALL NUMBER: HD1527.N7 R58 2010
SYNOPSIS: Tom Rivers introduces readers to the rigors of farm labor and some of the people who do the grueling work, including cabbage cutter "King Kong" and apple-picking pro "Stretch." You'll also meet the elusive "Joshua," who abandoned the cabbage crew in a huge rainstorm.

Famous puzzles of great mathematicians

2011-08-18T13:14:00.000-07:00

Title: Famous puzzles of great mathematicians

Author: Miodrag S. Petković

Pages: 325

Call Number: QA95 .P4358 2009

Synopsis: This book is a collection of problems in recreational mathematics. Petkovic (Univ. of Nis, Serbia) introduces each topic by presenting a famous historical problem and a brief biography of the mathematician who first proposed or solved the problem. Several areas of mathematics are represented in various chapters, e.g., "Number Theory," "Graphs," "Probability," and "Geometry." The problems and puzzles include many classic topics in recreational mathematics, including river crossing puzzles, geometrical dissections, Hamilton's dodecahedron puzzle, and problems on the chessboard. After demonstrating the solution to the original problem, the author then challenges the reader to solve a number of related problems. Solutions to these problems are provided at the end of each chapter. Four appendixes offer more in-depth explanations of specialized techniques, including the geometrical inversions and the solution of Pell's equation. An extensive bibliography lists resources for further study. This book will be accessible to undergraduate students and should also be of interest to faculty looking for interesting problems to use in their teaching. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates and their instructors. B. Borchers New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology

America's energy future : technology and transformation

2011-08-18T13:08:00.000-07:00

Title: America's energy future : technology and transformation

Author: Committee on America's Energy Future, National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, National Research Council of the National Academies

Pages: 711

Call Number: TJ163.25.U6 A464 2009

Synopsis: Energy touches our lives in countless ways and its costs are felt when we fill up at the gas pump, pay our home heating bills, and keep businesses both large and small running. There are long-term costs as well: to the environment, as natural resources are depleted and pollution contributes to global climate change, and to national security and independence, as many of the world's current energy sources are increasingly concentrated in geopolitically unstable regions. The country's challenge is to develop an energy portfolio that addresses these concerns while still providing sufficient, affordable energy reserves for the nation.
The United States has enormous resources to put behind solutions to this energy challenge; the dilemma is to identify which solutions are the right ones. Before deciding which energy technologies to develop, and on what timeline, we need to understand them better.
America's Energy Future analyzes the potential of a wide range of technologies for generation, distribution, and conservation of energy. This book considers technologies to increase energy efficiency, coal-fired power generation, nuclear power, renewable energy, oil and natural gas, and alternative transportation fuels. It offers a detailed assessment of the associated impacts and projected costs of implementing each technology and categorizes them into three time frames for implementation.

The last speakers : the quest to save the world's most endangered languages

2011-08-18T13:01:00.000-07:00

Title: The last speakers : the quest to save the world's most endangered languages

Author: K. David Harrison

Pages: 302

Call Number: P40.5.E53 H37 2010

Synopsis: The Last Speakers is an engaging and thought-provoking treatment that reports on the extinction crisis that threatens many languages worldwide. Through photos, graphics, short vignettes, interviews, and first-person stories, this scientist's notebook documents linguist K. David Harrison's around-the-world adventures to meet with last speakers of languages. The speakers' points of view are revealed through candid direct quotations and captivating photographs that capture the individuals not simply in static poses, but in active engagement with their environment and their traditional and modern life ways. Writing in a personal journalistic style, Harrison details his travels to visit language hotspots around the world--an undertaking also chronicled in the recent film The Linguists. Working with other professionals, photographer Chris Rainier, and local scholars, Harrison ventures to remote corners of Bolivia, Australia, Siberia, Japan, and India. There he seeks out any speakers of languages previously reported as extinct, and tries to clarify numbers of speakers for very small languages. The Last Speakers clearly explains the new, cutting-edge methods in social science that the team employs, as well as summaries of well-established (yet not widely known) scientific knowledge in the field. Languages don't disappear only in tiny hamlets. Harrison also visits last speakers living in urban areas in the developed world, to demonstrate that language extinction is happening, though largely invisibly, right in our own backyard. Sites include Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Japan, and several European nations. At some of these locations we observe focused efforts at language revitalization, including the use of computer and internet technologies to assist small languages in bridging the digital divide. Ultimately, Harrison's book humanises the global language-extinction crisis. Last speakers eloquently discuss their feelings about their language, what will be lost if it goes extinct, and how and why they believe this loss is happening. To prevent extinction of these cherished words and meanings, some speakers actively participate in language revitalization programs, working to pass on their knowledge to young generations. Their stories, which Harrison tells with empathy and respect, help us to grasp the impact of language extinction and the realization that when languages are lost, so are culture, diversity, and heritage.

Art of Renaissance Florence, 1400-1600

2011-08-18T12:56:00.000-07:00

Title: Art of Renaissance Florence, 1400-1600

Author: Loren Partridge

Pages: 241

Call Number: N6921.F7 P37 2009

Synopsis: In this absorbing illustrated history, Loren Partridge takes the reader on an insightful tour of Renaissance Florence and sheds new light on its celebrated art and culture by examining the city's great architectural and artistic achievements in their political, intellectual, and religious contexts. This essential and accessible text, the only up-to-date volume on Renaissance Florence currently available, incorporates insights from recent scholarship, including gender studies, while emphasizing the artists' social status, rivalries, and innovations. The result is a multilevel exploration of how the celebrated Florentine culture formally registers in specific works of art or architecture and how these works interactively informed and often shaped the culture.

Outer dark

2011-08-18T12:43:00.000-07:00

Title: Outer dark

Author: Cormac McCarthy

Pages: 242

Call Number: PS3563.C337 O9 1993

Synopsis: By the author of the critically acclaimed Border Trilogy, Outer Dark is a novel at once mythic and starkly evocative, set in an unspecified place in Appalachia sometime around the turn of the century. A woman bears her brother's child, a boy; the brother leaves the baby in the woods and tells her he died of natural causes. Discovering her brother's lie, she sets forth alone to find her son. Both brother and sister wander separately through a countryside being scourged by three terrifying and elusive strangers, headlong toward an eerie, apocalyptic resolution. 'McCarthy is a master stylist, perhaps without equal in American letters . . . In his hands, everything is done with consummate skill' Village Voice 'McCarthy has made the fabulous real, the ordinary mysterious' New York Times 'A profound parable that ultimately speaks to any society in any time' Time

The ghost map : the story of London's most terrifying epidemic-- and how it changed science, cities, and the modern world

2011-08-18T12:33:00.000-07:00

Title: The ghost map : the story of London's most terrifying epidemic-- and how it changed science, cities, and the modern world

Author: Steven Johnson

Pages: 299

Call Number: RC133.G6 J64 2007

Synopsis: A thrilling historical account of the worst cholera outbreak in Victorian London-and a brilliant exploration of how Dr. John Snow's solution revolutionized the way we think about disease, cities, science, and the modern world. From the dynamic thinker routinely compared to Malcolm Gladwell, E. O. Wilson, and James Gleick, "The Ghost Map" is a riveting page-turner with a real-life historical hero that brilliantly illuminates the intertwined histories of the spread of viruses, rise of cities, and the nature of scientific inquiry. These are topics that have long obsessed Steven Johnson, and "The Ghost Map" is a true triumph of the kind of multidisciplinary thinking for which he's become famous-a book that, like the work of Jared Diamond, presents both vivid history and a powerful and provocative explanation of what it means for the world we live in. "The Ghost Map" takes place in the summer of 1854. A devastating cholera outbreak seizes London just as it is emerging as a modern city: more than 2 million people packed into a ten-mile circumference, a hub of travel and commerce, teeming with people from all over the world, continually pushing the limits of infrastructure that's outdated as soon as it's updated. Dr. John Snow-whose ideas about contagion had been dismissed by the scientific community-is spurred to intense action when the people in his neighborhood begin dying. With enthralling suspense, Johnson chronicles Snow's day-by-day efforts, as he risks his own life to prove how the epidemic is being spread. When he creates the map that traces the pattern of outbreak back to its source, Dr. Snow didn't just solve the most pressing medical riddle of his time. He ultimately established a precedent for the way modern city-dwellers, city planners, physicians, and public officials think about the spread of disease and the development of the modern urban environment. "The Ghost Map" is an endlessly compelling and utterly gripping account of that London summer of 1854, from the microbial level to the macrourban-theory level-including, most important, the human level.

Martian in the playground : understanding the schoolchild with Asperger's syndrome

2011-08-17T13:56:00.001-07:00

Title: Martian in the playground : understanding the schoolchild with Asperger's syndrome

Author: Clare Sainsbury

Pages: 131

Call Number: RJ506.A9 S25 2009

Synopsis: This deceptively little book contains more truth and provides more insight into what it is like to have Asperger's Syndrome than many a weighty tome on the subject. It offers a view from the inside, but it is not yet another autobiography. Admirably and refreshingly, the author has refrained from giving an account solely based on her own experiences. Instead she sets out observations from 25 different suffers, giving often astonishing and sometimes harrowing glimpses of what actually happens to a child with Asperger's Syndrome in the classroom, in the playground, in the lunch queue and at home' - The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry This award-winning book illuminates what it means to be a person who has Aspergers Syndrome by providing a window into a unique and particular world. Drawing on her own experience of schooling, and that of a network of friends and correspondents who share her way of thinking and responding, Clare Sainsbury reminds us of the potential for harm which education holds for those who do not fit.This book holds insights that take us beyond the standard guidance on how to manage autistic spectrum disorder. It challenges the way we might handle obsessional behaviour.It invites us to celebrate the pure passion of the intellect, which such obsessions can represent, and to recognise the delight which can be experienced by children who love to collect. It reminds us that many of the autistic mannerisms we might try to suppress actually help the child to think.This revised edition includes an additional introduction and extensive summary of research in the field of Asperger's Syndrome, both by Tony Attwood.

What is contemporary art?

2011-08-17T13:55:00.000-07:00

Title: What is contemporary art?

Author: Terry Smith

Pages: 329

Call Number: N6497 .S65 2009

Synopsis:

Who gets to say what counts as contemporary art? Artists, critics, curators, gallerists, auctioneers, collectors, or the public? Revealing how all of these groups have shaped today’s multifaceted definition, Terry Smith brilliantly shows that an historical approach offers the best answer to the question:What is Contemporary Art?

Smith argues that the most recognizable kind is characterized by a return to mainstream modernism in the work of such artists as Richard Serra and Gerhard Richter, as well as the retro-sensationalism of figures like Damien Hirst and Takashi Murakami. At the same time, Smith reveals, post colonial artists are engaged in a different kind of practice: one that builds on local concerns and tackles questions of identity, history, and globalization. A younger generation embodies yet a third approach to contemporaneity by investigating time, place, mediation, and ethics through small-scale, closely connective art making. Inviting readers into these diverse yet overlapping art worlds, Smith offers a behind-the-scenes introduction to the institutions, the personalities, the biennials, and of course the works that together are defining the contemporary. The resulting map of where art is now illuminates not only where it has been but also where it is going.

Needed by nobody : homelessness and humanness in post-socialist Russia

2011-08-17T13:54:00.001-07:00

Title: Needed by nobody : homelessness and humanness in post-socialist Russia

Author: Tova Höjdestrand

Pages: 231

Call Number: HV4577.2.A4 H64 2009

Synopsis: Homelessness became a conspicuous facet of Russian city scapes only in the 1990s, when the Soviet criminalization of vagrancy and similar offenses was abolished. In spite of the host of social and economic problems confronting Russia in the demise of Soviet power, the social dislocation endured by increasing numbers of people went largely unrecognized by the state. Being homeless carries a special burden in Russia, where a permanent address is the precondition for all civil rights and social benefits and where homelessness is often regarded as a result of laziness and drinking, rather than external factors. In Needed by Nobody, the anthropologist Tova Höjdestrand offers a nuanced portrait of homelessness in St. Petersburg. Based on ethnographic work at railway stations, soup kitchens, and other places where the homeless gather, Höjdestrand describes the material and mental world of this marginalized population. They are, she observes, "not needed" in two senses. The state considers them, in effect, as noncitizens. At the same time they stand outside the traditionally intimate social networks that are the real safety net of life in post socialist Russia. As a result, they are deprived of the prerequisites for dealing with others in ways that they themselves value as "decent" and "human." Höjdestrand investigates processes of social exclusion as well as the remaining "world of waste": things, tasks, and places that are wanted by nobody else and on which "human leftovers" are forced to survive. In this bleak context, Höjdestrand takes up the intimate worlds of the homeless-their social relationships, dirt and cleanliness, and physical appearance. Her interviews with homeless people show that the indigent have a very good idea of what others think of them and that they are liable to reproduce the stigma that is attached to them even as they attempt to negotiate it. This unique and often moving portrait of life on the margins of society in the new Russia ultimately reveals how human dignity may be retained in the absence of its very preconditions.

The steward leader : transforming people, organizations and communities

2011-08-17T13:49:00.001-07:00

The steward leader : transforming people, organizations and communities

Title: The steward leader : transforming people, organizations and communities

Author: R. Scott Rodin

Pages: 197

Call Number: BV4597.53.L43 R66 2010

Synopsis: "Scott Rodin's The Steward Leader presents a fresh and powerful way to think about what it means to be a Christian leader. In essence, he argues that asking how to become a better leader, or even how to provide more effective leadership, is asking the wrong question. A better question is How can we be more Christlike as we lead? Compellingly, Dr. Rodin shows how taming our self-elevating nature and reflecting the image of a triune God revealed in Christ and Scripture will inevitably make us better leaders. He draws honestly upon his vast experience and faithfully upon the riches of Scripture to help us be better Christ-followers. Getting that right will help us be better leaders more than any how-to-lead book ever written (including mine!).The Steward Leader is a very valuable guide to any Christian leader who is willing to accept that leading is all about being."

Social media marketing : strategies for engaging in Facebook, Twitter & other social media

2011-08-10T14:32:00.000-07:00

Title: Social media marketing : strategies for engaging in Facebook, Twitter & other social media

Author: Liana "Li" Evans

Pages: 342

Call Number: HF5415.1265 .E93 2010

Synopsis:

I believe that social media is changing the way that companies need to interact with both their audiences and customers by listening and directly engaging with them. I’m Liana “Li” Evans, and I am the author ofSocial Media Marketing: Strategies for Engaging in Facebook, Twitter & Other Social Media.

I’ve written this book to give any marketer, novice, or expert a deeper look into the realm of social media marketing. So much has been touted, preached, and hoisted up on a pedestal as things marketers or companies should be doing, it’s hard to believe what’s true and what isn’t. This book can be your guide from beginning to end in understanding what’s hype and what’s not. From making the case of whether or not you should be actively engaging in social media, to putting the pieces together to plan a successful social media marketing strategy, I hope you will put this book to good use.

There’s a lot to digest when it comes to learning the different facets that comprise the world of social media. It isn’t simply just Facebook or Twitter—there’s a much bigger world out there than most marketers or company CEOs or CMOs are even aware of. Understanding that your audience and customers might not be where the media thinks they are (Twitter and Facebook, for example) is an important concept to grasp if you want to be successful.

Social media is also constantly changing. The Facebooks of today will be the Friendsters and MySpaces of tomorrow. Communities ebb and flow. They depend highly on engagement and members giving their time. When members cease to find reasons to share and leave the communities, those communities can go through low periods. Some recover, some don’t. For this reason, you have to be flexible with your social media strategies and constantly be monitoring and researching the conversations and where they’re happening.

Throughout the book, you’ll find several themes:

Research—You need to research your audience and customers thoroughly. Without the research, you are only guessing at where to start. Without the research, you will be wasting a lot of valuable time and resources in areas that most likely won’t help you attain the goals you want to reach with your social media marketing plan.
Strategy—Social media marketing is a lot more than just a laundry list of items that a company prints out on a marketing slick. Social media marketing, just like any other form of traditional or online marketing, needs a strategy. You need a well-thought-out plan with goals set in place so that you know where you want to be and how to get there.
Involvement—It’s not just your social media marketing team that’s involved in engaging and participating in social media communities. Just about everyone in your company has some sort of stake—whether it’s the stories your customer service reps hear on the phone, or it’s people totally removed from marketing (your accounts payable department, for example) who have Facebook pages stating they work for you. Everyone in your company has some sort of involvement in your social media marketing strategy. Understanding that different levels of involvement all have differing affects is key to making sure you plan the right strategy for everyone in your company.
Measurement—One of the biggest questions I hear when it comes to implementing a social media marketing strategy is, “How will I know if it’s successful?” I also like to put the questions out there of “How do you know if what you are doing is not successful and when do you know when to stop doing it?” Your social media marketing strategy needs to be measured. Measurement comes in many different forms, from website traffic to the number of retweets your content is getting. No two companies will measure the same things the same way. Success or failure is different for everyone.

Social media is my passion. I have found companies that understand how to harness the power that social media communities offer and have become extremely successful and usually have a loyal band of brand evangelists ready to promote them at a moments’ notice. Helping companies and marketers understand how to reach and engage their audiences through the power of social media is something I love to do, and I cringe when I see or hear so-called consultants selling social media services as if it were the next gimmick they need to get into.

Social media marketing isn’t a gimmick—it’s hard work that can be extremely engaging when implemented in the right way. Now more than ever, it’s crucial for companies to be where the questions and conversations are going on that affect their bottom line. Social media is the perfect way to do that.

My hope is that you find this book to be your guide to help you become successful in your social media marketing efforts and that it gives you both the foundation and roadmap to help you along the way to that goal. Thanks for reading!

The Supreme Court and the American elite, 1789-2008

2011-08-10T14:26:00.000-07:00

Title: The Supreme Court and the American elite, 1789-2008

Author: Lucas A. Powe, Jr

Pages: 421

Call Number: KF8742 .P678 2009

Synopsis:

“The Supreme Court follows the election returns,” the fictional Mr. Dooley observed a hundred years ago. And for all our ideals and dreams of a disinterested judiciary, above the political fray, it seems Mr. Dooley was right. In this engaging-and disturbing-book, a leading historian of the Court reveals the close fit between its decisions and the nation’s politics.

The story begins with the creation of the Constitution and ends with the June 2008 decisions on the rights of detainees at Guant namo Bay. Rendering crisp (and often controversial) judgments on key decisions from Marbury v. Madison to the War on Terror, Lucas Powe shows how virtually every major Supreme Court ruling, however deftly framed in constitutional terms, suited the wishes of the most powerful politicians of the time. This history reflects a changing Court, from the country’s early struggles over commerce and transportation to the torturous justifications of slavery before the Civil War, to a post–New Deal interest in ending segregation, controlling criminal procedure, and addressing knotty questions arising from the Cold War. Through all of this the Court emerges as part of a ruling regime, doing its best to implement the regime’s policies.

Drawing on more than four decades of thinking about the Supreme Court and its role in the American political system, this book offers a new, clear, and troubling perspective on American jurisprudence, politics, and history.

The twilight of the bombs : recent challenges, new dangers, and the prospects for a world without nuclear weapons

2011-08-10T14:19:00.000-07:00

Title: The twilight of the bombs : recent challenges, new dangers, and the prospects for a world without nuclear weapons

Author: Richard Rhodes

Pages: 366

Call Number: U264 .R49 2010

Synopsis: The culminating volume in Richard Rhodes’s monumental and prizewinning history of nuclear weapons, offering the first comprehensive narrative of the challenges faced in a post–Cold War age.

The past twenty years have transformed our relationship with nuclear weapons drastically. With extraordinary depth of knowledge and understanding, Rhodes makes clear how the five original nuclear powers—Russia, Great Britain, France, China, and especially the United States—have struggled with new realities. He shows us how the stage was set for a second tragic war when Iraq secretly destroyed its nuclear infrastructure and reveals the real reasons George W. Bush chose to fight a second war in Iraq. We see how the efforts of U.S. weapons labs laid the groundwork for nuclear consolidation in the former Soviet Union, how and why South Africa secretly built and then destroyed a small nuclear arsenal, and how Jimmy Carter’s private diplomacy prevented another Korean War.

We also see how the present day represents a nuclear turning point and what hope exists for our future. Rhodes assesses the emerging threat of nuclear terrorism and offers advice on how our complicated relationships with North Korea and South Asia should evolve. Finally, he imagines what a post-nuclear world might look like, suggesting what might make it possible.

Powerful and persuasive, The Twilight of the Bombs is an essential work of contemporary history.

The digital eye : photographic art in the electronic age

2011-08-10T14:08:00.000-07:00

Title: The digital eye : photographic art in the electronic age

Author: Sylvia Wolf

Pages: 175

Call Number: TR267 .W65 2010

Synopsis: Digital photographic and imaging technologies are the most recent development in an art and science whose history is one of constant technological innovation. Using sophisticated software and scanners, artists are able to enhance or alter photographs, and create mesmerizing effects. Focusing exclusively on digital photography, Sylvia Wolf explores a medium that challenges our notions of the role of the artist and of an image¿s relationship to the real. Taking readers from the earliest experiments in digital photography to the latest innovations, Wolf offers a historical perspective and points to future trends. The work of a global panoply of artists, including Ida Applebroog, Sheila Pree Bright, Peter Campus, Xing Danwen, Joan Fontcuberta, Tom Friedman, Andreas Gursky, Martina Lopez, Loretta Lux, Mary Mattingly, Wendy McMurdo, Andreas Müller-Pohle, Thomas Ruff, Lucas Samaras, and Jeff Wall, demonstrates how diverse and complex the field has become. This expert survey offers a riveting snapshot of a medium that is changing the way we look at pictures and the world.

Who cares? : public ambivalence and government activism from the New Deal to the second gilded age

2011-08-09T15:29:00.000-07:00

Title: Who cares? : public ambivalence and government activism from the New Deal to the second gilded age

Author: Katherine S. Newman and Elisabeth S. Jacobs

Pages: 219

Call Number: HC106 .N64 2010

Synopsis: "Americans have long been ambivalent about what is owed the weakest and most vulnerable among us, and public opinion has never been overly generous toward the welfare state. Not everyone is a snarling Scrooge with a heart of stone, but neither does everyone believe we are our brother's keeper--not by a long shot. So what's a President to do in the face of great human need and a divided, indifferent, or even hostile public mind? The answer, in one word, is: Lead. Katherine Newman and Elisabeth Jacobs have produced a timely and absorbing book about how Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, and--yes--Richard Nixon refused to leave the fate of public policy toward the poor to a fickle public. Barack Obama, are you listening?"--Bill Moyers"The deep ambivalence Americans feel about government has always been central to our politics, and it's an especially vital matter now with the rise of Tea Party movements and other assaults on public power. Americans often want a smaller government that does more, a difficult recipe for politicians to follow. That's whyWho Cares?is so timely and so important. Katherine Newman and Elisabeth Jacobs have done a superb job tracing the history of our ambivalence and suggesting where we might go from here. They will be the talk of academia--and the talk shows."--E. J. Dionne Jr., author ofSouled OutandWhy Americans Hate Politics"This timely and important book shows that Americans are willing to support social programs that help the poor and unfortunate--but usually only after those programs have been up and rolling for years. A just society therefore depends on politicians with the courage to lead rather than pander to current public opinion."--Robert B. Reich, professor of public policy, University of California, Berkeley

Substance abuse : a reference handbook

2011-08-09T15:25:00.000-07:00

Title: Substance abuse : a reference handbook

Author: David E. Newton

Pages: 298

Call Number: HV4998 .N488 2010

Synopsis: A broad background on the history of substance abuse provides readers with the information needed to fully grasp this complicated topic· Reviews the important scientific principles that come into play with the use of alcohol, tobacco, as well as illegal substances· Provides the tools students need to pursue their own targeted study of substance abuse· Portrays the myriad issues of drug use within a domestic and international context

The crossing

2011-08-09T15:21:00.000-07:00

Title: The crossing

Author: Cormac McCarthy

Pages: 425

Call Number: PS3563.C337 C7 1994x

Synopsis: Volume Two of the Border Trilogy‘The Crossing, together with its predecessor All the Pretty Horses, towers over most contemporary fiction. An American epic infused with a grand solemnity’ Sunday Times Set on the south-western ranches in the years before the Second World War, The Crossing follows the fortunes of sixteen-year-old Billy and his younger brother Boyd. Fascinated by an elusive wolf that has been marauding his family’s property, Billy captures the animal – but rather than kill it, sets out impulsively for the mountains of Mexico to return it to where it came from.When Billy comes back to his own home he finds himself and his world irrevocably changed. His loss of innocence has come at a price, and once again the border beckons with its desolate beauty and cruel promise.‘McCarthy writes prose as clean as a bullet cutting through the air and constructs tales as compelling as any you will read . . . They are stories about people as real as the land they ride and as disturbing as the rituals they enact’ Daily Telegraph
VOLUME TWO OF THE BORDER TRILOGY Set on the southwestern ranches in the years before the Second World War, The Crossing follows the fortunes of sixteen-year-old Billy and his younger brother Boyd. Fascinated by an elusive wolf that has been marauding his family's property, Billy captures the animal - but rather than kill it, sets out impulsively for the mountains of Mexico to return it to where it came from. When Billy comes back to his own home he finds himself and his world irrevocably changed. His loss of innocence has come at a price, and once again the border beckons with its desolate beauty and cruel promise. 'Admirers of All the Pretty Horseswill need little encouragement . . . McCarthy speaks to us in the thrilling, apocalyptic tones of an Old Testament prophet. We must treasure him' Sunday Telegraph 'The Crossing is like a river in full spate: beautiful and dangerous' The Times 'An American epic infused with a grand solemnity' Sunday Times

Father hunger : fathers, daughters & food

2011-08-09T15:11:00.000-07:00

Title: Father hunger : fathers, daughters & food

Author: Margo Maine

Pages: 254

Call Number: RJ506.E18 M35 1991

Synopsis: "Father Hunger" is the emptiness experienced by women whose fathers were emotionally absent, a void that leads to unrealistic body image, yo-yo dieting, food fears & disordered eating patterns. "Father Hunger" is a common phenomenon of Western culture, whose dictates & myths limit a father's role, creating a loss for all family members. Dr. Maine also discusses practical solutions to help readers understand & improve their father/daughter relationships & help families reconnect.

The idea of justice

2011-08-08T16:02:00.000-07:00

Title: The idea of justice

Author: Amartya Sen

Pages: 467

Call Number: JC578 .S424 2009

Synopsis: Social justice: an ideal, forever beyond our grasp; or one of many practical possibilities? More than a matter of intellectual discourse, the idea of justice plays a real role in how-and how well-people live. And in this book the distinguished scholar Amartya Sen offers a powerful critique of the theory of social justice that, in its grip on social and political thinking, has long left practical realities far behind.

The transcendental theory of justice, the subject of Sen’s analysis, flourished in the Enlightenment and has proponents among some of the most distinguished philosophers of our day; it is concerned with identifying perfectly just social arrangements, defining the nature of the perfectly just society. The approach Sen favors, on the other hand, focuses on the comparative judgments of what is “more” or “less” just, and on the comparative merits of the different societies that actually emerge from certain institutions and social interactions.

At the heart of Sen’s argument is a respect for reasoned differences in our understanding of what a “just society” really is. People of different persuasions-for example, utilitarians, economic egalitarians, labor right theorists, no -nonsense libertarians-might each reasonably see a clear and straightforward resolution to questions of justice; and yet, these clear and straightforward resolutions would be completely different. In light of this, Sen argues for a comparative perspective on justice that can guide us in the choice between alternatives that we inevitably face.

Intelligent design : the bridge between science & theology

2011-08-08T15:53:00.000-07:00

Title: Intelligent design : the bridge between science & theology

Author: William A. Dembski

Pages: 312

Call Number: BL240.2 .D46 1999

Synopsis: Voted a 2000 Book of the Year by Christianity Today! The Intelligent Design movement is three things:- a scientific research program for investigating intelligent causes- an intellectual movement that challenges naturalistic evolutionary theories- a way of understanding divine action Although the fast-growing movement has gained considerable grassroots support, many scientists and theologians remain skeptical about its merits. Scientists worry that it's bad science (merely creationism in disguise) and theologians worry that it's bad theology (misunderstanding divine action). In this book William Dembski addresses these concerns and brilliantly argues that intelligent design provides a crucial link between science and theology.Various chapters creatively and powerfully address intelligent discernment of divine action in nature, why the significance of miracles should be reconsidered, and the demise and unanswered questions of British natural theology. Effectively challenging the hegemony of naturalism and reinstating design within science, Dembski shows how intelligent design can be unpacked as a theory of information.Intelligent Design is a pivotal, synthesizing work from a thinker whom Phillip Johnson calls "one of the most important of the design theorists who are sparking a scientific revolution by legitimating the concept of intelligent design in science."

State crime in the global age

2011-08-08T15:48:00.000-07:00

Title: State crime in the global age

Author: William J. Chambliss, Raymond Michalowski and Ronald C. Kramer

Pages: 306

Call Number: HV6254 .S73 2010

Synopsis:

State Crime in the Global Age brings together original writings from leading scholars in the field to explore the many ways that the use and abuse of state power results in grave social harms that outweigh, by far, the consequences of ordinary street crime.

The topics covered include the crimes of empire, illegal war, the bombing of civilians, state sanctioned torture, state sacrifice of human lives, and judicial wrongdoing. The book breaks new ground through its examination of the ways globalization has intensified potentials for state crime, as well as bringing novel theoretical understandings of the state to the study of state crime, and exploring strategies for confronting state crime.

This book, while containing much that is of interest to scholars of state crime, is designed to be accessible to students and others who are concerned with the ways individuals, social groups, and whole nations are victimized by the misuse of state power.

Smile

2011-08-08T15:41:00.000-07:00

Title: Smile

Author: Raina Telgemeier

Pages: 213

Call Number: RK55.Y68 T45 2010

Synopsis: In this coming-of-age true story, Raina just wants to be a normal sixth grader, but one night after Girl Scouts she trips and falls, severely injuring her two front teeth, and what follows is a long and frustrating journey with on-again, off-again braces, surgery, embarrassing headgear and even a retainer with fake teeth attached--on top of all that, there's a major earthquake, boy confusion and friends who turn out to be not so friendly. Simultaneous.

The ego tunnel : the science of the mind and the myth of the self

2011-08-03T16:03:00.000-07:00

Title: The ego tunnel : the science of the mind and the myth of the self

Author: Thomas Metzinger

Pages: 276

Call Number: BF311 .M47 2009

Synopsis: Thomas Metzinger directs the Theoretical Philosophy Group and the Neuroethics Research Unit at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, and is an Adjunct Fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies. He is currently President of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness. He has written and edited ten books including Being No One, Conscious Experience, and Neural Correlates of Consciousness. He lives near Frankfurt, Germany.

We’re used to thinking about the self as an independent entity, something that we either have or are. In The Ego Tunnel, philosopher Thomas Metzinger claims otherwise: No such thing as a self exists. The conscious self is the content of a model created by our brain—an internal image, but one we cannot experience as an image. Everything we experience is “a virtual self in a virtual reality.”

But if the self is not “real,” why and how did it evolve? How does the brain construct it? Do we still have souls, free will, personal autonomy, or moral accountability? In a time when the science of cognition is becoming as controversial as evolution,The Ego Tunnelprovides a stunningly original take on the mystery of the mind.

Animal spirits : how human psychology drives the economy, and why it matters for global capitalism

2011-08-03T16:00:00.000-07:00

Title: Animal spirits : how human psychology drives the economy, and why it matters for global capitalism

Author: George A. Akerlof and Robert J. Shiller

Pages: 230

Call Number: HB74.P8 A494 2009

Synopsis: The global financial crisis has made it painfully clear that powerful psychological forces are imperiling the wealth of nations today. From blind faith in ever-rising housing prices to plummeting confidence in capital markets, “animal spirits” are driving financial events worldwide. In this audiobook, acclaimed economists George Akerlof and Robert Shiller challenge the economic wisdom that got us into this mess, and put forward a bold new vision that will transform economics and restore prosperity.Akerlof and Shiller reassert the necessity of an active government role in economic policymaking by recovering the idea of animal spirits, a term John Maynard Keynes used to describe the gloom and despondence that led to the Great Depression and the changing psychology that accompanied recovery. Like Keynes, Akerlof and Shiller know that managing these animal spirits requires the steady hand of government—simply allowing markets to work won’t do it. In rebuilding the case for a more robust, behaviorally informed Keynesian ism, they detail the most pervasive effects of animal spirits in contemporary economic life—such as confidence, fear, bad faith, corruption, a concern for fairness, and the stories we tell ourselves about our economic fortunes—and show how Reaganomics, Thatcherism, and the rational expectations revolution failed to account for them.Animal Spirits offers a road map for reversing the financial misfortunes besetting us today. Read it and learn how leaders can channel animal spirits—the powerful forces of human psychology that are afoot in the world economy today.

Stolen

2011-08-03T15:57:00.000-07:00

Title: Stolen

Author: Lucy Christopher

Pages: 299

Call Number: PZ7.C4576 Sto 2010

Synopsis: "A vivid new voice for teens."-Melvin Burgess, author of Sarah's Face and Bloodsong"All the tension of lightning, all the terror of thunder. A stunning, scary, and beautiful book. Stolen is a beautiful novel, which will pick up your world and shake it so hard that you can never be sure of anything again. Set in a landscape so exotic and powerful that it becomes one of the main characters in the book, this story of a boy and girl delivers one compelling scene after another.Ty and Gem will be in your head a long time. If you were getting tired of reading, Stolen will turn you back into an addict."-John Marsden, author of The Ellie Chronicles and The Tomorrow Series"This book is amazing. I love it. I wish I had written it- I mean that." [Lucy Christopher] is a very, very serious new talent and should be very proud of herself for writing such a mature, well-sustained, deceptively simple, utterly engrossing work. P.S. I am very worried about the camel."-Natasha Farrant, author of Diving Into Light and Some Other Eden"A strong, keenly written debut."-The Bookseller UK

The burdens of disease : epidemics and human response in western history

2011-08-03T15:46:00.000-07:00

Title: The burdens of disease : epidemics and human response in western history

Author: J.N. Hays

Pages: 374

Call Number: RA649 .H29 2009

Synopsis: A review of the original edition ofThe Burdens of Diseasethat appeared in ISIS stated,"Hays has written a remarkable book. He too has a message: That epidemics are primarily dependent on poverty and that the West has consistently refused to accept this."This revised edition confirms the book's timely value and provides a sweeping approach to the history of disease.

In this updated volume, with revisions and additions to the original content, including the evolution of drug-resistant diseases and expanded coverage of HIV/AIDS, along with recent data on mortality figures and other relevant statistics, J. N. Hays chronicles perceptions and responses to plague and pestilence over two thousand years of western history. Disease is framed as a multidimensional construct, situated at the intersection of history, politics, culture, and medicine, and rooted in mentalities and social relations as much as in biological conditions of pathology. This revised edition ofThe Burdens of Diseasealso studies the victims of epidemics, paying close attention to the relationships among poverty, power, and disease.

Emotionomics : leveraging emotions for business success

2011-08-02T17:16:00.000-07:00

Title: Emotionomics : leveraging emotions for business success

Author: Dan Hill

Pages: 345

Call Number: HB74.P8 H55 2008

Synopsis: Breakthroughs in brain science have revealed that people are primarily emotional decision-makers. Many companies have not yet accepted that fact, ignoring emotion in favor of rationality and efficiency. Even fewer have acted on it. "Emotionomics" looks at emotions in terms of business opportunities, both in the marketplace and in the workplace. In today's highly competitive marketplace where many products look alike, a product's emotional benefit can make the difference. Moreover, a company with an emotionally engaged workforce will undoubtedly achieve competitive advantage. Dan Hill's book draws on insights gathered through facial coding, the best means of measuring and managing the emotional response of customers and employees, to show how to leverage emotions for business success.

Colonel Roosevelt

2011-08-02T17:12:00.000-07:00

Title: Colonel Roosevelt

Author: Edmund Morris

Pages: 766

Call Number: E757 .M8825 2010

Synopsis: Of all our great presidents, Theodore Roosevelt is the only one whose greatness increased out of office. When he toured Europe in 1910 as plain "Colonel Roosevelt," he was hailed as the most famous man in the world. Crowned heads vied to put him up in their palaces. "If I see another king," he joked, "I think I shall bite him." Had TR won his historic "Bull Moose" campaign in 1912 (when he outpolled the sitting president, William Howard Taft), he might have averted World War I, so great was his international influence. Had he not died in 1919, at the early age of sixty, he would unquestionably have been reelected to a third term in the White House and completed the work he began in 1901 of establishing the United States as a model democracy, militarily strong and socially just. This biography by Edmund Morris, the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author of The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt and Theodore Rex, is itself the completion of a trilogy sure to stand as definitive. Packed with more adventure, variety, drama, humor, and tragedy than a big novel, yet documented down to the smallest fact, it recounts the last decade of perhaps the most amazing life in American history. What other president has written forty books, hunted lions, founded a third political party, survived an assassin's bullet, and explored an unknown river longer than the Rhine? Colonel Roosevelt begins with a prologue recounting what TR called his "journey into the Pleistocene" - a yearlong safari through East Africa, collecting specimens for the Smithsonian. Some readers will be repulsed by TR's bloodlust, which this book does not prettify, yet there can be no denying that the Colonel passionately loved and understood every living thing that came his way: The text is rich in quotations from his marvelous nature writing. Although TR intended to remain out of politics when he returned home in 1910, a fateful decision that spring drew him back into public life. By the end of the summer, in his famous "New Nationalism" speech, he was the guiding spirit of the Progressive movement, which inspired much of the social agenda of the future New Deal. (TR's fifth cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt acknowledged that debt, adding that the Colonel "was the greatest man I ever knew.") Then follows a detailed account of TR's reluctant yet almost successful campaign for the White House in 1912. But unlike other biographers, Edmund Morris does not treat TR mainly as a politician. This volume gives as much consideration to TR's literary achievements and epic expedition to Brazil in 1913-1914 as to his fatherhood of six astonishingly different children, his spiritual and aesthetic beliefs, and his eager embrace of other cultures - from Arab and Magyar to German and American Indian. It is impossible to read Colonel Roosevelt and not be awed by the man's universality. The Colonel himself remarked, "I have enjoyed life as much as any nine men I know." Morris does not hesitate, however, to show how pathologically TR turned upon those who inherited the power he craved - the hapless Taft, the adroit Woodrow Wilson. When Wilson declined to bring the United States into World War I in 1915 and 1916, the Colonel blasted him with some of the worst abuse ever uttered by a former chief executive. Yet even Wilson had to admit that behind the Rooseveltian will to rule lay a winning idealism and decency. "He is just like a big boy - there is a sweetness about him that you can't resist." That makes the story of TR's last year, when the "boy" in him died, all the sadder in the telling: the conclusion of a life of Aristotelian grandeur. From the Hardcover edition.

Ghostopolis

2011-08-02T17:09:00.000-07:00

Title: Ghostopolis

Author: Doug TenNapel

Pages: 266

Call Number: PZ7.7.T46 Gh 2010

Synopsis: Imagine Garth Hale's surprise when he's accidentally zapped to the spirit world by Frank Gallows, a washed-out ghost wrangler. Suddenly Garth finds he has powers the ghosts don't have, and he's stuck in a world run by the evil ruler of Ghostopolis, who would use Garth's newfound abilities to rule the ghostly kingdom. When Garth meets Cecil, his grandfather's ghost, the two search for a way to get Garth back home, and nearly lose hope until Frank Gallows shows up to fix his mistake.

The tangled bank : an introduction to evolution

2011-08-02T17:03:00.000-07:00

Title: The tangled bank : an introduction to evolution

Author: Carl Zimmer

Pages: 385

Call Number: QH367 .Z56 2010

Synopsis: "The Tangled Bank is the first textbook about evolution intended for the general reader. Zimmer, an award-winning science writer, takes readers on a fascinating journey into the latest discoveries about evolution. In the Canadian Arctic, paleontologists unearth fossils documenting the move of our ancestors from sea to land. In the outback of Australia, a zoologist tracks some of the world's deadliest snakes to decipher the 100-million-year evolution of venom molecules. In Africa, geneticists are gathering DNA to probe the origin of our species. In clear, non-technical language, Zimmer explains the central concepts essential for understanding new advances in evolution, including natural selection, genetic drift, and sexual selection. He demonstrates how vital evolution is to all branches of modern biology-from the fight against deadly antibiotic-resistant bacteria to the analysis of the human genome. Richly illustrated with 285 illustrations and photographs, The Tangled Bank is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the history of life on Earth."-- Publisher's description.

Hindsight : the promise and peril of looking backward

2011-08-01T17:33:00.000-07:00

Title: Hindsight : the promise and peril of looking backward

Author: Mark Freeman

Pages: 247

Call Number: BF378.H54 .F74 2010

Synopsis: Although the idea of hindsight is frequently associated with deceit, bias, and the distortions of memory, Mark Freeman argues here that hindsight--the process of looking back over the terrain of the past from the standpoint of the present--may also be viewed as a profoundly important source of understanding, insight, and moral growth. Indeed, hindsight can be, and often is, a source of truth-of a sort, Freeman contends, that is only available by looking backward. Think of Tolstoy's Ivan Ilych, reexamining his past as he lay dying, only to learn that the life he had lived had been a lie: here, hindsight provides a corrective lens for viewing the past, allowing one to see what one could not, or would not, see earlier on. In addition, hindsight is intimately connected to what Freeman terms narrative reflection; for, through the distance conferred by time, one can look back on past experiences and see them as parts of an emerging whole, episodes within an evolving story. Drawing on psychology, philosophy, literature, memoir, and personal experience, this engaging volume offers an insightful exploration of the role of hindsight both in discerning the truth of one's past and in crafting a good and worthy life.

Tudor Queens of England

2011-08-01T17:30:00.000-07:00

Title: Tudor Queens of England

Author: David Loades

Pages: 264

Call Number: DA317.1 .L65 2009

Synopsis: From Elizabeth of York wife of Henry VII, the first Tudor monarch through to Elizabeth I, her grand-daughter and the last in the line, this book explores some of the most colourful and dramatic women in British history. Queen consorts were central to the Royal Court but their role has rarely been examined or contrasted with the better known ruling queens. How did they behave (in and out of the bedchamber)? How powerful were they as patrons of learning and the arts? What religious views did they espouse and why? How successful and influential were they?

Research design : qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches

2011-08-01T17:21:00.000-07:00

Title: Research design : qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches

Author: John W. Creswell

Pages: 260

Call Number: H62 .C6963 2009

Synopsis: The Bestselling Text is Completely Updated and Better than Ever! Praise for the Third Edition : I have used the older edition with great success. The new one is even better.â? -Kathleen Duncan, University of La Verne The Third Edition of the bestselling text Research Design by John W. Creswell enables readers to compare three approaches to research-qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods-in a single research methods text. The book presents these three approaches side by side within the context of the process of research from the beginning steps of philosophical assumptions to the writing and presenting of research. Written in a user-friendly manner, Creswell's text does not rely on technical jargon. He cuts to the core of what a reader needs to know to read and design research in part by showcasing ideas in a scaffold approach so that the reader understands ideas from the simple to the complex. Key updates to the Third Edition : Presents the preliminary steps of using philosophical assumptions in the beginning of the book Provides an expanded discussion on ethical issues Emphasizes new Web-based technologies for literature searches Offers updated information about mixed methods research procedures Contains a glossary of terms Highlights research tips throughout the chapters incorporating the author's experiences over the last 35 years The Instructor's Resource CD-ROM (ISBN:978-1-4129-6672-6) contains: Sample Syllabi PowerPoint Slide Sets Sample Student Proposals Suggested Studies Published in Journal Articles Application Activities and Tutorial Peer-Feedback Group Activities Study Design Group Activities End-of-Chapter Checklists The Student Study Site at www.sagepub.com/creswell offers :Sample Student Proposals Application Activities and Tutorials Peer-Feedback Group Activities Study Design Group Activities End-of-Chapter Checklists Research Design, Third Edition appeals to students taking research design and research methods classes throughout the social and behavioral sciences-from undergraduates to the most advanced doctoral programs.

The taming of the American crowd : from stamp riots to shopping sprees

2011-08-01T17:18:00.000-07:00

Title: The taming of the American crowd : from stamp riots to shopping sprees

Author: Al Sandine

Pages: 272

Call Number: HN57 .S26 2009

Synopsis: The history of the United States has been largely shaped, for better or for worse, by the actions of large groups of people. Rioters on a village green, shoppers lurching about a labyrinthine mall, slaves packed into the dark hold of a ship, strikers assembling outside the factory gates, all have their place in the rich and sometimes tragic history of the American crowd. This unique study traces that history from the days of anti-colonial revolt to today? passive, "colonized crowds" that fill our sports arenas, commercial centers, and workplaces. In clear and lively prose, Al Sandine argues for the progressive role crowds have played in securing greater democracy, civil rights, and free speech. But he also investigates crowds in their more dangerous forms, such as lynch mobs and anti-immigrant riots.The Taming of the American Crowd explains how the crowd as an active subject of change often positive, sometimes not has been replaced by the passive crowd as object of control and regulation.Today, the imperatives of mass society organize people in large numbers to consume goods and conform to permissible behavioral patterns; not to openly contest power. But, with the world entering a new period of economic uncertainty and mass protests erupting across the globe, it is time to reverse that trend. This book shows us the history of the untamed crowd and urges us to reclaim its legacy.

A necessary engagement : reinventing America's relations with the Muslim world

2011-08-01T17:13:00.000-07:00

Title: A necessary engagement : reinventing America's relations with the Muslim world

Author: Emile A. Nakhleh

Pages: 162

Call Number: JZ1480.A55 N35 2009

Synopsis: In A Necessary Engagement, the CIA's former point man on Islam makes a vigorous case for a renewal of American public diplomacy in the Muslim world. Offering a unique balance between in-depth analysis, personal memoir, and foreign policy remedies, the book injects much-needed wisdom into the public discussion of long-term U.S.-Muslim relations.Intelligence insider Emile Nakhleh argues that an engagement with the Muslim world benefits the national interest of the United States. Therefore, the next administration should discard the terrorism prism through which the country has viewed political Islam since 9/11 and focus instead on the common interests of America and mainstream Muslims. Nakhleh investigates recent U.S. policy toward Islamic nations and offers the new administration a ten-point plan for rebuilding America's relationship with the Muslim world. The author demonstrates that winning over Arabs and Muslims requires a thorough knowledge of Arab and Muslim cultures and languages within our intelligence community, as well as a long-term American commitment of personnel and resources. While the success of these efforts will be incremental and hard to measure, Nakhleh believes that the current low standing of the United States in most Arab and Muslim countries can be reversed.Stressing that effective public diplomacy must be a serious, coordinated effort pursued at the highest political levels,A Necessary Engagement charts a new course for future ties between the United States and the Islamic world.

Albert Camus, elements of a life

2011-08-01T17:08:00.000-07:00

Title: Albert Camus, elements of a life

Author: Robert Zaretsky

Pages: 181

Call Number: PQ2605.A3734 Z97 2010

Synopsis: Like many others of my generation, I first read Camus in high school. I carried him in my backpack while traveling across Europe, I carried him into (and out of) relationships, and I carried him into (and out of) difficult periods of my life. More recently, I have carried him into university classes that I have taught, coming out of them with a renewed appreciation of his art. To be sure, my idea of Camus thirty years ago scarcely resembles my idea of him today. While my admiration and attachment to his writings remain as great as they were long ago, the reasons are more complicated and critical. Robert Zaretsky On October 16, 1957, Albert Camus was dining in a small restaurant on Paris's Left Bank when a waiter approached him with news: the radio had just announced that Camus had won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Camus insisted that a mistake had been made and that others were far more deserving of the honor than he. Yet Camus was already recognized around the world as the voice of a generation a status he had achieved with dizzying speed. He published his first novel, The Stranger, in 1942 and emerged from the war as the spokesperson for the Resistance and, although he consistently rejected the label, for existentialism. Subsequent works of fiction (including the novels The Plague and The Fall), philosophy (notably, The Myth of Sisyphus and The Rebel), drama, and social criticism secured his literary and intellectual reputation. And then on January 4, 1960, three years after accepting the Nobel Prize, he was killed in a car accident. In a book distinguished by clarity and passion, Robert Zaretsky considers why Albert Camus mattered in his own lifetime and continues to matter today, focusing on key moments that shaped Camus's development as a writer, a public intellectual, and a man. Each chapter is devoted to a specific event: Camus's visit to Kabylia in 1939 to report on the conditions of the local Berber tribes; his decision in 1945 to sign a petition to commute the death sentence of collaborationist writer Robert Brasillach; his famous quarrel with Jean-Paul Sartre in 1952 over the nature of communism; and his silence about the war in Algeria in 1956. Both engaged and engaging, Albert Camus: Elements of a Life is a searching companion to a profoundly moral and lucid writer whose works provide a guide for those perplexed by the absurdity of the human condition and the world's resistance to meaning.

Civil War humor

2011-08-01T17:04:00.000-07:00

Title: Civil War humor

Author: Cameron C. Nickels

Pages: 162

Call Number: PS437 .N53 2010

Synopsis: In Civil War Humor, author Cameron C. Nickels examines the various forms of comedic popular artifacts produced in America from 1861 to 1865, and looks at how wartime humor was created, disseminated, and received by both sides of the conflict. Song lyrics, newspaper columns, sheet music covers, illustrations, political cartoons, fiction, light verse, paper dolls, printed envelopes, and penny dreadfuls--from and for the Union and the Confederacy--are analyzed at length. Nickels argues that the war coincided with the rise of inexpensive mass printing in the United States and thus subsequently with the rise of the country's widely distributed popular culture. As such, the war was as much a "paper war"--involving the use of publications to disseminate propaganda and ideas about the Union and the Confederacy's positions--as one taking place on battlefields. Humor was a key element on both sides in deflating pretensions and establishing political stances (and ways of critiquing them).Civil War Humor explores how the combatants portrayed Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln, life on the home front, battles, and African Americans.Civil War Humor reproduces over sixty illustrations and texts created during the war and provides close readings of these materials. At the same time, it places this corpus of comedy in the context of wartime history, economies, and tactics. This comprehensive overview examines humor's role in shaping and reflecting the cultural imagination of the nation during its most tumultuous period.

The book in the Renaissance

2011-08-01T16:46:00.000-07:00

Title: The book in the Renaissance

Author: Andrew Pettegree

Pages: 421

Call Number: Z291.3 .P48 2010

Synopsis: The dawn of print was a major turning point in the early modern world. It rescued ancient learning from obscurity, transformed knowledge of the natural and physical world, and brought the thrill of book ownership to the masses. But, as Andrew Pettegree reveals in this work of great historical merit, the story of the post-Gutenberg world was rather more complicated than we have often come to believe. The Book in the Renaissance reconstructs the first 150 years of the world of print, exploring the complex web of religious, economic, and cultural concerns surrounding the printed word. From its very beginnings, the printed book had to straddle financial and religious imperatives, as well as the very different requirements and constraints of the many countries who embraced it, and, as Pettegree argues, the process was far from a runaway success. More than ideas, the success or failure of books depended upon patrons and markets, precarious strategies and the thwarting of piracy, and the ebb and flow of popular demand. Owing to his state-of-the-art and highly detailed research, Pettegree crafts an authoritative, lucid, and truly pioneering work of cultural history about a major development in the evolution of European society.

America's four gods : what we say about God-- & what that says about us

2011-07-28T15:03:00.000-07:00

Title: America's four gods : what we say about God-- & what that says about us

Author: Paul Froese & Christopher Bader

Pages: 258

Call Number: BL2525 .F75 2010

Synopsis: Despite all the hype surrounding the "New Atheism," the United States remains one of the most religious nations on Earth. In fact, 95% of Americans believe in God--a level of agreement rarely seen in American life. The greatest divisions in America are not between atheists and believers, or even between people of different faiths. What divides us, this groundbreaking book shows, is how we conceive of God and the role He plays in our daily lives. Drawing upon original survey data from thousands of Americans and a wealth of in-depth interviews from all parts of the country, Froese and Bader trace America's cultural and political diversity to its ultimate source--differing opinions about God. Americans worship four distinct types of God: The Authoritative God--who is both engaged in the world and judgmental; The Benevolent God--who loves and helps us in spite of our failings; The Critical God--who catalogs our sins but does not punish them (at least not in this life); and The Distant God--who stands apart from the world He created.

The Persians : ancient, medieval, and modern Iran

2011-07-28T15:00:00.000-07:00

Title: The Persians : ancient, medieval, and modern Iran

Author: Homa Katouzian

Pages: 452

Call Number: DS272 .K375 2009

Synopsis: In recent years, Iran has gained attention mostly for negative reasons—its authoritarian religious government, disputed nuclear program, and controversial role in the Middle East—but there is much more to the story of this ancient land than can be gleaned from the news. This authoritative and comprehensive history of Iran, written by Homa Katouzian, an acclaimed expert, covers the entire history of the area from the ancient Persian Empire to today’s Iranian state.

Writing from an Iranian rather than a European perspective, Katouzian integrates the significant cultural and literary history of Iran with its political and social history. Some of the greatest poets of human history wrote in Persian—among them Rumi, Omar Khayyam, and Saadi—and Katouzian discusses and occasionally quotes their work. In his thoughtful analysis of Iranian society, Katouzian argues that the absolute and arbitrary power traditionally enjoyed by Persian/Iranian rulers has resulted in an unstable society where fear and short-term thinking dominate. A magisterial history, this book also serves as an excellent background to the role of Iran in the contemporary world.

Green gone wrong : how our economy is undermining the environmental revolution

2011-07-28T14:57:00.000-07:00

Title: Green gone wrong : how our economy is undermining the environmental revolution

Author: Heather Rogers

Pages: 262

Call Number: HC79.E5 R6312 2010

Synopsis: In Green Gone Wrong environmental writer Heather Rogers blasts through the marketing buzz of big corporations and asks a simple question: Do today’s much-touted "green" products—carbon offsets, organic food, biofuels, and eco-friendly cars and homes—really work? Implicit in efforts to go green is the promise that global warming can be stopped by swapping out dirty goods for "clean" ones. But can earth-friendly products really save the planet? This far-reaching, riveting narrative explores how the most readily available solutions to environmental crisis may be disastrously off the mark. Rogers travels the world tracking how the conversion from a "petro" to a "green" society affects the most fundamental aspects of life—food, shelter, and transportation. Reporting from some of the most remote places on earth, Rogers uncovers shocking results that include massive clear-cutting, destruction of native ecosystems, and grinding poverty. Relying simply on market forces, people with good intentions wanting to just "do something" to help the planet are left feeling confused and powerless.

Green Gone Wrong reveals a fuller story, taking the reader into forests, fields, factories, and boardrooms around the world to draw out the unintended consequences, inherent obstacles, and successes of eco-friendly consumption. What do the labels "USDA Certified Organic" and "Fair Trade" really mean on a vast South American export-driven organic farm? A superlow-energy "eco-village" in Germany’s Black Forest demonstrates that green homes dramatically shrink energy use, so why aren’t we using this technology in America? The decisions made in Detroit’s executive suites have kept Americans driving gas-guzzling automobiles for decades, even as U.S. automakers have European models that clock twice the mpg. Why won’t they sell these cars domestically? And what does carbon offsetting really mean when projects can so easily fail? In one case thousands of trees planted in drought-plagued Southern India withered and died, releasing any CO2 they were meant to neutralize.

Expertly reported, this gripping exposé pieces together a global picture of what’s happening in the name of today’s environmentalism. Green Gone Wrong speaks to anyone interested in climate change and the future of the natural world, as well as those who want to act but are caught not knowing who, or what, to believe to protect the planet. Rogers casts a sober eye on what’s working and what’s not, fearlessly pushing ahead the debate over how to protect the planet.

The 24-hour customer : new rules for winning in a time-starved, always-connected economy

2011-07-28T14:54:00.000-07:00

Title: The 24-hour customer : new rules for winning in a time-starved, always-connected economy

Author: Adrian C. Ott

Pages: 224

Call Number: HF5415.5 .O88 2010

Synopsis: Time is not money. Time is more important than money. Today's customers are overwhelmed, overworked, and overstressed, and it seems that everyone-from CEOs to soccer moms-is short on time and inundated with information. As a result, despite the availability of 24/7 commerce and countless ways of engaging people in our multiscreen (mobile, TV, and PC) economy, companies find it more difficult than ever to claim even a fraction of the 1,440 minutes in their customers' precious 24 hours. In The 24-Hour Customer, Adrian C. Ott, CEO of a successful Silicon Valley consultancy, argues that companies need to strategically harness the ebbs and flows of customer time and attention in order to win in today's competitive landscape. She explores the economics of time and attention, including why customers will devote hours addicted to social networks, yet will say "I have no time!" to other offerings. Based on extensive research and real-world results with market-leading companies, this book provides tools, such as Time-Value Tradeoffs and Time-ographics, that pinpoint opportunities to increase revenue and gain market traction. Filled with fascinating case studies from companies like Johnson & Johnson, Amazon, and iPhone app start-ups, The 24-Hour Customer offers fresh ideas for capitalizing on the elements of time, attention, and value to innovate never-before-considered products, services, and programs for today's Über-connected, multitasking customer. Readers will discover how: Zipcar utilized time-slicing to redefine automobile ownership and grew by 70 percent, while the auto industry struggled in 2009; Netflix, Hulu, and others time-shifted to movies on-demand, ultimately restructuring the entertainment industry; P&G leveraged inattention by enabling habit-formation for some of its most successful brands. This book shares the latest strategic weapons for achieving market leadership and will change the way executives think about their businesses and their customers.

Piracy : the intellectual property wars from Gutenberg to Gates

2011-07-28T14:44:00.000-07:00

Title: Piracy : the intellectual property wars from Gutenberg to Gates

Author: Adrian Johns

Pages: 626

Call Number: K1401 .J64 2009

Synopsis:

Since the rise of Napster and other file-sharing services in its wake, most of us have assumed that intellectual piracy is a product of the digital age and that it threatens creative expression as never before. The Motion Picture Association of America, for instance, claimed that in 2005 the film industry lost $2.3 billion in revenue to piracy online. But here Adrian Johns shows that piracy has a much longer and more vital history than we have realized—one that has been largely forgotten and is little understood.

Piracyexplores the intellectual property wars from the advent of print culture in the fifteenth century to the reign of the Internet in the twenty-first. Brimming with broader implications for today’s debates over open access, fair use, free culture, and the like, Johns’s book ultimately argues that piracy has always stood at the center of our attempts to reconcile creativity and commerce—and that piracy has been an engine of social, technological, and intellectual innovations as often as it has been their adversary. From Cervantes to Sonny Bono, from Maria Callas to Microsoft, from Grub Street to Google, no chapter in the story of piracy evades Johns’s graceful analysis in what will be the definitive history of the subject for years to come.

The surreal house

2011-07-28T14:27:00.000-07:00

Title: The surreal house

Author: Jane Alison

Pages: 347

Call Number: N6494.S8 S85 2010

Synopsis: Through a unique blend of art, photography, film, and architecture,The Surreal House presents the individual dwelling as a place of mystery and wonder. Fusing house and dream, it probes the relationship between interior and shell, object and space, and it elaborates “the marvelous” and “compulsive beauty” as espoused by André Breton. The haunted house, the cabinet of curiosities, the ruined castle, the cage, the cave, the box, the labyrinth, the bell jar, and the womb are among the uniquely surreal habitats explored.

Shaped by the irrational and the subversive, the flip side of the modernist paradigm of the functional, rational dwelling,The Surreal House is ripe for discovery. Mirroring the surrealist love of poetic juxtaposition, the project brings together works by artists such as Edward Hopper, Marcel Duchamp, Giorgio de Chirico, Man Ray, Max Ernst, René Magritte, Joseph Cornell, and Salvador Dalí. A surreal legacy is to be found in the interiors of little-known Italian architect and designer Carlo Mollino, in Frederick Kiesler’s model for “The Endless House” (1957–59), in sculptures by Louise Bourgeois and Rebecca Horn, and in installations by Edward Kienholz and Ilya Kabakov. Contemporary architecture is represented by the work of Rem Koolhaas and Diller & Scofidio, among others.

A manifesto for a poetic reading of the house,The Surreal House reflects on the unquestionable importance of the dwelling, the cradle of our being, in the imaginative realm. This richly illustrated account brings together a host of commentators and historians, and accompanies a major exhibition.

Emerson for the twenty-first century : global perspectives on an American icon

2011-07-28T14:23:00.000-07:00

Title: Emerson for the twenty-first century : global perspectives on an American icon

Author: Barry Tharaud

Pages: 610

Call Number: PS1638 .E418 2010

Synopsis: While previous collections of Emerson essays have tended to be a sort of 'stock-taking' or 'retrospective' look at Emerson scholarship, this collection follows a more 'prospective' trajectory for Emerson studies based on the recent increase in global perspectives in nearly all fields of humanistic studies.

Quantum Man

2011-07-28T14:16:00.000-07:00

Title: Quantum man : Richard Feynman's life in science

Author: Lawrence M. Krauss

Pages: 350

Call Number: QC16.F49 K73 2011

Synopsis: Perhaps the greatest physicist of the second half of the twentieth century, Richard Feynman changed the way we think about quantum mechanics, the most perplexing of all physical theories. Here Lawrence M. Krauss, himself a theoretical physicist and best-selling author, offers a unique scientific biography: a rollicking narrative coupled with clear and novel expositions of science at the limits. An immensely colorful persona in and out of the office, Feynman revolutionized our understanding of nature amid a turbulent life. Krauss presents that life-from the death of Feynman’s childhood sweetheart during the Manhattan Project to his reluctant rise as a scientific icon-as seen through the science, providing a new understanding of the legacy of a man who has fascinated millions. An accessible reflection on the issues that drive physics today, Quantum Man captures the story of a man who was willing to break all the rules to tame a theory that broke all the rules.

God and evil in the theology of St Thomas Aquinas

2011-03-02T06:38:00.000-08:00

Title: God and evil in the theology of St Thomas Aquinas

Author: Herbert McCabe

Pages: 205

Call Number: B765.T5 M333 2010

Synopsis: Herbert McCabe was one of the most original and creative theologians of recent years. Continuum has published a number of volumes of volumes unpublished typescripts left behind by him following his untimely death in 2001. This book is the Sixth to appear.

Caring for words in a culture of lies

2011-03-02T06:35:00.000-08:00

Title: Caring for words in a culture of lies

Author: Marilyn Chandler McEntyre

Pages: 242

Call Number: BV4647.T7 M34 2009

Synopsis: The author offers 12 strategies of stewardship for those concerned with preserving the vitality and precision of the spoken and written word.

Aunting : cultural practices that sustain family and community life

2011-03-02T06:33:00.001-08:00

Title: Aunting : cultural practices that sustain family and community life

Author: Laura L. Ellingson & Patricia J. Sotirin

Pages: 223

Call Number: HQ759.94 .E45 2010

Synopsis: Whether related by biology, marriage, circumstance, or choice, aunts embody a uniquely flexible familial role. The aunt-niece/nephew relationship—though often overlooked—is critical and complex, one that appears at the core of a resilient, healthy family life.In this engaging book, Laura Ellingson and Patricia Sotirin construct a consideration of “aunts” that moves from noun to verb. “Aunts” is more than a group of people or a role; instead, “to aunt” is a practice, something people “do.” Some women “aunt” as second mothers, friends, or mentors, while others play more peripheral roles. In either case, aunts nonetheless significantly impact their nieces and nephews’ life choices.Drawing on personal narratives that represent a rich cross section of society, Ellingson and Sotirin construct a cohesive story of the diversity of aunting experiences in the contemporary United States. Skillfully written, Aunting recovers the enormous potential of this dynamic kinship relationship and offers a model for understanding and supporting the variety of families in society today.

Iced : the story of organized crime in Canada

2011-03-02T06:31:00.000-08:00

Title: Iced : the story of organized crime in Canada

Author: Stephen Schneider

Pages: 600

Call Number: HV6453.C2 S36 2009

Synopsis: "You're lucky he didn't have an ice pick in his hands. I know how this guy performs."-Mobster Paul Volpe speaking about a Buffalo-mafia enforcer named "Cicci"Canada is lauded the world over as a law abiding, peaceful country - a shining example to all nations. Such a view, also shared by most Canadians, is typically naïve and misinformed. Throughout its history, to present day and beyond, Canada has been and will continue to be home to criminals and crime organizations that are brilliant at finding ways to make money - a lot of money - illegally.Iced: The Story of Organized Crime in Canada is a remarkable parallel history to the one generally accepted and taught in our schools. Organized crime has had a significant impact on the shaping of this country and the lives of its people. The most violent and thuggish - outlaw motorcycle gangs like Hells Angels - have been raised to mythic proportions. The families who owned distilleries during Prohibition, such as the Bronfmans, built vast fortunes that today are vested in corporate holdings. The mafia in Montreal created and controlled the largest heroin and cocaine smuggling empire in the world, feeding the insatiable appetite of our American neighbours. Today, gangs are laying waste the streets of Vancouver, and "BC bud" flows into the U.S. as the marijuana of choice.Organized crime is as old as this nation's founding, with pirates ravaging the east coast, even as hired guns by colonial governments. Since our nation's earliest times, government and crime groups have found that collusion can have its mutual benefits.Comprehensive, informative and entertaining - as you will discover in the remarkable period pieces devised by the author and the illustrations commissioned specially for this book - Iced is a romp across the nation and across the centuries. In these pages you will meet crime groups that are at once sordid and inept, yet resourceful entrepreneurs and self-proclaimed champions of the underdog, who operate in full sight of their communities and the law. This is the definitive book on organized crime in Canada, and a unique contribution to our understanding of Canadian history.

The maintenance of life : preventing social death through euthanasia talk and end-of-life care : lessons from the Netherlands

2011-03-02T06:27:00.000-08:00

Title: The maintenance of life : preventing social death through euthanasia talk and end-of-life care : lessons from the Netherlands

Author: Frances Norwood

Pages: 293

Call Number: R726 .N67 2009

Synopsis: The landscape of death and dying has changed. Today, death most often does not happen in an instant, it is more typically a long process of life mixed in with decline and social losses that eventually and sometimes many years after an initial onset of terminal or serious illness culminates in some combination of social and biological death. British sociologist Clive Seale (1998) suggests that changes in death and dying have been accompanied by changing tactics for maintaining social life. He suggests two strategies that that have developed in response to modern death including the development of a kind of therapeutic discourse which is used to transform social losses that occur at the end of life into something meaningful and euthanasia practices where patients choose to alter the exact time of their death to have death of the body more closely coincide with death of the social being. The Maintenance of Life is about what has developed in one present-day society to address social death and modern dying. It is based on a 15-month qualitative study of home death in the Netherlands with general practitioners, end-of-life patients and their family members. The book develops from two study findings: (1) that euthanasia in practice is predominantly a discussion, which only rarely culminates in a euthanasia death; and (2) that euthanasia talk in many ways serves a palliative function, staving off social death by providing participants with a venue for processing meaning, giving voice to suffering, and reaffirming social bonds and self-identity at the end of Dutch life. Through the mainstream practice of euthanasia talk, space has been created within healthcare which helps people live longer as active participants engaged in Dutch social networks at the end of life. Using direct observation and in-depth interviews with patients, families and physicians, this book looks critically at Dutch euthanasia policy and broader end-of-life practices from a cultural perspective and in comparison with U.S. end-of-life practices and policies. It concludes with a discussion of what lessons the U.S. may take from the Dutch experience maintaining life at the end of life.

Good boss, bad boss : how to be the best-- and learn from the worst

2011-02-21T06:39:00.000-08:00

Title: Good boss, bad boss : how to be the best-- and learn from the worst

Author: Robert I. Sutton

Pages: 308

Call Number: HF5549.12 .S88 2010

Synopsis: If you are a boss who wants to do great work, what can you do about it? Good Boss, Bad Bossis devoted to answering that question. Stanford Professor Robert Sutton weaves together the best psychological and management research with compelling stories and cases to reveal the mindset and moves of the best (and worst) bosses. This book was inspired by the deluge of emails, research, phone calls, and conversations that Dr. Sutton experienced after publishing his blockbuster bestsellerThe No Asshole Rule.He realized that most of these stories and studies swirled around a central figure in every workplace: THE BOSS. These heart-breaking, inspiring, and sometimes funny stories taught Sutton that most bosses - and their followers - wanted a lot more than just a jerk-free workplace. They aspired to become (or work for) an all-around great boss, somebody with the skill and grit to inspire superior work, commitment, and dignity among their charges. As Dr. Sutton digs into the nitty-gritty of what the best (and worst) bosses do, a theme runs throughoutGood Boss, Bad Boss- which brings together the diverse lessons and is a hallmark of great bosses:They work doggedly to "stay in tune" with how their followers (and superiors, peers, and customers too) react to what they say and do.The best bosses are acutely aware that their success depends on having the self-awareness to control their moods and moves, to accurately interpret their impact on others, and to make adjustments on the fly that continuously spark effort, dignity, and pride among their people.

Coping with minority status : responses to exclusion and inclusion

2011-02-21T06:36:00.000-08:00

Title: Coping with minority status : responses to exclusion and inclusion

Author: Fabrizio Butera, John M. Levine

Pages: 359

Call Number: HN90.S6 C67 2009

Synopsis: Society consists of numerous interconnected, interacting, and interdependent groups, which differ in power and status. The consequences of belonging to a more powerful, higher-status "majority" versus a less powerful, lower-status "minority" can be profound, and the tensions that arise between these groups are the root of society's most difficult problems. To understand the origins of these problems and develop solutions for them, it is necessary to understand the dynamics of majority-minority relations. This volume brings together leading scholars in the fields of stigma, prejudice and discrimination, minority influence, and intergroup relations to provide diverse theoretical and methodological perspectives on what it means to be a minority. The volume, which focuses on the strategies that minorities use in coping with majorities, is organized into three sections: "Coping with Exclusion: Being Excluded for Who You Are"; "Coping with Exclusion: Being Excluded for What You Think and Do"; and "Coping with Inclusion."

Who's watching? : daily practices of surveillance among contemporary families

2011-02-21T06:30:00.000-08:00

Title: Who's watching? : daily practices of surveillance among contemporary families

Author: Margaret K. Nelson and Anita Ilta Garey

Pages: 298

Call Number: HV9469 .W53 2009

Synopsis: Although family members sometime engage in monitoring as an extension of governmental surveillance, they also monitor each other, other families, and their own borders to preserve norms about what a family should be and what family members should do. Whether it is the seemingly benign surveillance of using baby monitors, the more obviously intrusive use of home drug tests on teenagers, or the way people in public feel free to judge and comment on the family composition of others, monitoring goes on all the time -- and even (or maybe especially) when there seems to be no monitoring going on at all.

Music and the myth of Arcadia in Renaissance Italy

2011-02-21T06:23:00.000-08:00

Title: Music and the myth of Arcadia in Renaissance Italy

Author: Giuseppe Gerbino

Pages: 445

Call Number: ML290.2 .G47 2009

Synopsis: The idea that there was a time when men and women lived in perfect harmony with nature and with themselves, though rooted in classical antiquity, was one of the most fertile products of the Renaissance literary and artistic imagination. This book explores one specific aspect of this idea: the musical representation and stylization of the myth of Arcadia in sixteenth-century Italy. Giuseppe Gerbino outlines how Renaissance culture strove to keep this utopia alive and demonstrates how music played a fundamental role in the construction and preservation of this collective illusion. Covering a range of different musical genres, including the madrigal, music for theater, and early opera, the book overcomes traditional barriers among genres. Illustrative music examples, including previously unpublished music, serve to expand the reader's knowledge of this important repertory, and provide new insights into the role of music in the preservation of cultural myths.

Basic gas chromatography

2011-02-21T06:18:00.000-08:00

Title: Basic gas chromatography

Author: Harold M. McNair, James M. Miller

Pages: 239

Call Number: QD79.C45 M425 2009

Synopsis: The New Edition of the Well-Regarded Handbook on Gas Chromatographysince the publication of the highly successful first edition of Basic Gas Chromatography, the practice of chromatography has undergone several notable developments. Basic Gas Chromatography, Second Edition covers the latest in the field, giving readers the most up-to-date guide available, while maintaining the first editionâ²s practical, applied approach to the subject and its accessibility to a wide range of readers.The text provides comprehensive coverage of basic topics in the field, such as stationary phases, packed columns and inlets, capillary columns and inlets, detectors, and qualitative and quantitative analysis. At the same time, the coverage also features key additions and updated topics including:Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS)Sampling methodsMultidimensional gas chromatographyFast gas chromatographyGas chromatography analysis of nonvolatile compoundsInverse gas chromatography and pyrolysis gas chromatographyAlong with these new and updated topics, the references, resources, and Web sites in Basic Gas Chromatography have been revised to reflect the state of the field. Concise and fundamental in its coverage, Basic Gas Chromatography, Second Edition remains the standard handbook for everyone from undergraduates studying analytical chemistry to working industrial chemists.

The story of libraries : from the invention of writing to the computer age

2011-02-21T06:14:00.000-08:00

Title: The story of libraries : from the invention of writing to the computer age

Author: Fred Lerner

Pages: 249

Call Number: Z721 .L565 2009

Synopsis: This work describes the crucial role libraries played in ancient Egypt, Han-dynasty China, the ancient Western Classical world (the great library of Alexandria, which was lost to us in stages over many years), the Baghdad of Harun-al-Rashid, and medieval and Renaissance Europe. It continues with the libraries of colonial America, the Library of Congress, university libraries, and today's large public library system. Book jacket.

The children of divorce : the loss of family as the loss of being

2011-02-02T07:02:00.000-08:00

Title: The children of divorce : the loss of family as the loss of being

Author: Andrew Root.

Pages: 171

Call Number: BT707 .R66 2010

Synopsis: "Winsomely written, achingly honest, and fearlessly hopeful. Root's analysis of divorce as an ontological--not just a sociological--crisis for children is dead-on, as is his advice for congregations who must name and address this soul-splitting reality. With his incomparable ability to blend story and theology, Root delivers a beautiful and wise book that is for anyone touched by divorce."--Kenda Creasy Dean, Princeton Theological Seminary"Andrew Root's insightful analysis gives voice to my own journey as a child of divorce, and to the experiences of countless others I've observed. This book beautifully integrates the ontological pain of divorce with the redemptive power of Christ and the church."--Kara E. Powell, Fuller Youth Institute, Fuller Theological Seminary"Divorce leaves a cloud of dust that never settles. And those of us who love and care for kids need to pay special attention to the growing number of children who undergo this experience. As one who has lived in the dust, Root raises the right issues, challenging us to think more deliberately and carefully about what it means to minister to, parent, and befriend the children of divorce."--Walt Mueller, Center for Parent/Youth Understanding"Youth workers have always known that the impact of divorce on kids was substantially deeper than pop culture would want us to believe, and now thankfully Root tells us why this is true. Reading Children of Divorce felt like sitting with Root--precariously, uncomfortably--in the three-way intersection of history, psychology, and theology."--Mark Oestreicher, speaker; consultant; author, Youth Ministry 3.0"This fascinating study argues that the pain experienced by children of divorced parents cannot be healed by legal, psychological, 'religious,' or other techniques. An affliction that attacks the ontological foundations of the self can only be assuaged by the acquisition of new sources of being. And so Root probes how the Christian faith and community can help locate these sources. He demonstrates an unusual combination of human compassion and theological wisdom."--Douglas John Hall, McGill University"Our culture says divorce is 'normal,' but the existential consequences for children of divorce--like myself--are not a normal aspect of human development. With compassion, wisdom, and theological insight, Root calls for the church to become a community in which young people are able to ground their being and process the painful loss of family security."--Mark W. Cannister, Gordon College

Benjamin Franklin : an American life

2011-02-02T06:59:00.000-08:00

Title: Benjamin Franklin : an American life

Author: Walter Isaacson

Pages: 586

Call Number: E302.6.F8 I83 2004

Synopsis: Reading Group Questions and Topics for Discussion1. Why does Walter Isaacson, in the opening pages of his biography, call Benjamin Franklin "the founding father who winks at us"? Why does he consider Franklin the most approachable of the founders, much less intimidating than other great figures of his time -- Washington, Jefferson, or Adams?2. Isaacson portrays Franklin as a man who has a particular resonance in 21st-century America."We see his reflection in our own time,"Isaacson writes."A successful publisher and consummate networker with an inventive curiosity, he would have felt right at home in the information revolution, and his unabashed striving to be part of an upwardly mobile meritocracy made him, in social critic David Brooks's phrase, 'our founding Yuppie.'"Talk about how you think Franklin would react if he could be transported into our contemporary world. What aspects of American life today do you think would please him, and which would likely inspire his genial, mocking, or caustic wit?3."He was, during his eighty-four-year-long life, America's best scientist, inventor, diplomat, writer, and business strategist, and he was also one of its most practical, though not most profound, political thinkers,"Isaacson writes. Were you surprised by the range and variety of Franklin's activities? In which of his many roles do you think Franklin had his most impressive accomplishments? Most of us learned when we were growing up about Franklin's flying a kite and discovering electricity and his invention of a lightning rod. Which of his many lesser known inventions or scientific experiments did you find especially interesting? Why?4."The essence of Franklin is that he was a civic-minded man. He cared more about public behavior than inner piety, and he was more interested in building the City of Man than the City of God,"Isaacson writes. Talk about some of the community groups that Franklin founded and how they reflect his belief in civic virtue for the common good.5. Ben Franklin, Isaacson tells us,"had faith in the wisdom of the common man and felt that a new nation would draw its strength from what he called 'the middling people.'"Discuss the ways in which Franklin helped to create, and to celebrate, a new ruling class of ordinary citizens -- a new political order"in which rights and power were based not on the happenstance of heritage but on merit and virtue and hard work"Do you share Franklin's faith in the virtues and values of the middle class? Why or why not?6. Benjamin Franklin was the only man who shaped all the founding documents of America: the Albany Plan of Union, the Declaration of Independence, the treaty of alliance with France, the peace treaty with England, and the Constitution. Discuss the unique stamp that Franklin left, or attempted to leave, on each of these documents? How might American history have unfolded differently had the colonial assemblies adopted Franklin's Albany Plan with its federalist concept? What is the significance of Franklin's edit of the Declaration of Independence, changing Jefferson's "We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable" to "We hold these truths to be self-evident"?7. In what sense is Franklin "an exemplar of the Enlightenment"? Why did the French public consider Voltaire and Franklin to be soul mates? Why did Franklin abandon the Puritan/Calvinist theology that he had grown up with? How did his religious beliefs evolve over time?8. What do you think of the way Franklin treated his common-law wife, Deborah, and his illegitimate son, William, the identity of whose mother remains unknown to this day? The book makes clear that for 15 of the last 17 years of Deborah's life, Franklin lived an ocean away, including when she died. Why do you think Isaacson still concludes:"Nevertheless, their mutual affection, respect, and loyalty -- and their sense of partnership -- would endure"?How do yo

Comeback America : turning the country around and restoring fiscal responsibility

2011-02-02T06:57:00.000-08:00

Title: Comeback America : turning the country around and restoring fiscal responsibility

Author: David M. Walker.

Pages: 212

Call Number: HJ275 .W235 2010

Synopsis: He's one of America's most capable, canny, candid, and independent financial experts. Now David M. Walker sounds a call to action. Comeback America is a tough-minded, innovative, inspiring guide to help us avoid the approaching economic abyss and put the country back on track again. As comptroller general of the United States and head of the Government Accountability Office (GAO)-"the nation's top auditor"-Walker warned Congress and the administration as the federal surplus became a giant deficit under George W. Bush. As president and CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, he now works full-time to raise public awareness regarding mounting debt burdens being imposed on future generations. Comeback America is his crucial manifesto, a way for President Obama to end out-of-control government spending and reform our tax, retirement, health care, defense, and other systems-before it's too late. Walker believes that by 2030, absent significant reforms to current government programs and policies, federal taxes could double from current levels, meaning less money and poorer education for kids-which will hurt families along with our nation's economic strength and position in the world. If our foreign creditors-such as China-decide to buy fewer of our Treasury bonds, interest rates will rise and cars and homes will become less affordable. But it doesn't have to be that way. Comeback America shows how we can return to our founding principles of fiscal responsibility and stewardship for future generations. The book includes bold ideas to control spending, save Social Security, dramatically alter Medicare, and simplify the tax code-all taking into account the Obama Administration's current efforts, which receive never-before-published assessments both complimentary and critical. Nonpartisan, nonideological, and filled with a love of the country its esteemed author has spent his life serving, Comeback America is a book for anyone interested in America's economic future-in other words, a book everyone should read.

The food wars

2011-02-02T06:53:00.000-08:00

Title: The food wars

Author: Walden Bello

Pages: 176

Call Number: HD9000.6 .B35 2009

Synopsis: Neither the recent global food shortages nor the impending world energy crisis will be unfamiliar to readers, yet the link between the two has only recently been discussed. In Against the Grain , Walden Bello, renowned activist, academic and voice of the global South, situates the origins of the current food crisis within the neo-liberal reforms occurring on a global scale, describing the marginalization of the peasantry by global systems of production and distribution that service mainly the worldâs middle class and elite. Partially caused by the diversion of food crops to biofuel feedstock, the crisis, for Bello, has its roots in the destruction of peasant-based agricultural systems through structural adjustment and trade liberalization. He examines this phenomenon through various case studies in Africa, along with longer case studies of China, the Philippines and Mexico. Yet Bello does not stop merely with his diagnosis of the disease. Instead, he traces the rise of the peasantry from being passive victims to a class-conscious force, one that has managed to intervene in global politics and precipitate the various collapses of the World Trade Organizationâs Doha Round. Following the rise of the progressive peasant federation Via Campesina, Bello finally suggests an alternative paradigm of production, one centered on the concept of de-globalization.

Family violence : legal, medical, and social perspectives

2011-02-02T06:50:00.000-08:00

Title: Family violence : legal, medical, and social perspectives

Author: Harvey Wallace, Cliff Roberson

Pages: 420

Call Number: HV6626.2 .W35 2011

Synopsis: Family Violence: Legal, Medical and Social Perspectives, 5/e Harvey Wallace,CaliforniaState University, Fresno nbsp; Family Violencepresents a comprehensive introduction to the study of family violence and discusses current controversies in the field from three perspectives: legal, medical, and social. nbsp; Family Violenceis the only text on the market to provide thorough coverage ofstalking, sexual harassment,andsexual violence in the workplace. Extensive pedagogy,such as learning objectives, in-chapter exercises, end-of-chapter problems, case studies, and vignettes, enhance studentsrsquo; learning. ldquo;Promising Practicesrdquo;sections enable students to read about cutting-edge issues. Students are asked to test assumptions about theoretical concepts and their applicability to the field and profession. ldquo;International Perspectivesrdquo;sections allow students to view family violence from a global perspective. ldquo;Focus Boxesrdquo;highlight pressing family violence issues of national importance. ldquo;Practicardquo;give students the opportunity to examine different professional dilemmas and discuss contrasting points of view.

Hugging the middle : how teachers teach in an era of testing and accountability

2011-02-02T06:48:00.000-08:00

Title: Hugging the middle : how teachers teach in an era of testing and accountability

Author: Larry Cuban

Pages: 104

Call Number: LB1775.2 .C83 2009

Synopsis: Larry Cuban's How Teachers Taught has been widely acclaimed as a pathbreaking text on the history and evolution of classroom teaching. Now Cuban brings his great experience as a classroom teacher, superintendent, and researcher to this highly anticipated follow-up to his groundbreaking work. Focusing on three diverse school districts (Arlington, Virginia; Denver, Colorado; Oakland, California), Hugging the Middle offers an incisive portrayal of how teachers teach now. It is a revealing look at a range of current, workable pedagogical options educators are using to engage students while satisfying parents and policymakers-options that succeed by creating hybrid practices that combine both teacher-centered approaches (e.g., mostly direct instruction, textbooks, lectures) with student-centered ones (e.g., team projects on real-world problems, independent learning, small-groupwork). This book serves as a state-of-the-profession assessment in an era of top-down educational policy

Calvin at the centre

2011-01-26T07:52:00.000-08:00

Title: Calvin at the centre

Author: Paul Helm

Pages: 355

Call Number: BX9418 .H377 2010

Synopsis: Calvin at the Centre explores the effect of various ideas on the thought of John Calvin, and the influence of his ideas on later theologians. Paul Helm sets to one side the assumption that Calvin's views are purely biblical and unaffected by the particular intellectual circumstances in which he lived. Emphasising the philosophical ideas within Calvin's theology, this new study deals in turn with epistemological, metaphysical, and ethical issues, and highlights some of the complexities in the relation between Calvin and Calvinism.

Getting even : the truth about workplace revenge--and how to stop it

2011-01-26T07:49:00.000-08:00

Title: Getting even : the truth about workplace revenge--and how to stop it

Author: Thomas M. Tripp & Robert J. Bies

Pages: 230

Call Number: HD58.7 .T742 2009

Synopsis: Praise for Getting Even"Getting Even isn't just the most useful and engaging book ever written on revenge in the workplace. It is the best book I've ever read about the root causes of destructive workplace behaviors and how to stop the vicious circles that hurt so many people and organizations." -Robert Sutton, professor, Stanford University and author, The No Asshole Rule"Getting Even helps the reader address thorny organizational problems caused by the human desire for revenge. Leaders and managers in all organizations will benefit from the insights and practical recommendations for preventing or limiting the problems of revenge. Thus, Getting Even will help its readers manage the most common, if not only, cause of destructive conflict in organizations." -David E. Morrison, MD, management consultant, Morrison Associates, Ltd."Getting Even provides managers with the ability to see acts of revenge as signals about what ails their organization. Tripp and Bies provide an insightful framework that explains why ordinary employees engage in extraordinary acts of revenge. They convincingly document that revenge is typically not the act of the irrational few, but is the situationally-created behavior of normal human beings." -Max H. Bazerman, Straus Professor, Harvard University and coauthor, Negotiation Genius"I've used the valuable insights revealed in this book to counsel and advise all manner of clients including managers, small-business owners, human resources professionals, labor professionals, and employees. Understanding and implementing these concepts will undoubtedly improve every employment relationship. This book is a must-read!" -Janet E. Taylor, attorney at law, focusing on employment and labor"Let's face it, we've all been there. Someone took the promotion that you deserved, put their name on the report that you did, belittled someone to the point of tears, or worse yet, drove you to tears. When these situations hit, you're usually less worried about getting ahead and more interested in getting even. But does revenge really solve anything? Thomas Tripp and Robert Bies have provided a practical guide for managers and individuals to understand the many causes of revenge, who is most likely to commit an act of revenge, and how to spot and defuse it before it happens." -Jon V. Peters, president, The Institute for Management Studies

Sex and the American teenager : seeing through the myths and confronting the issues

2011-01-26T07:47:00.000-08:00

Title: Sex and the American teenager : seeing through the myths and confronting the issues

Author: R. Murray Thomas

Pages: 259

Call Number: HQ27 .T448 2009

Synopsis: Sex and the American Teenager provides an expert's assessment of the controversies surrounding the sexual development of adolescents, and their beliefs and problems regarding such matters. Using numerous case studies, Dr. Thomas illustrates specific ways that sexual issues arise in school and the variables that impact each case, while suggesting ways parents and school officials can deal with problematic situations. Though not simply statistics-laden, Dr. Thomas's book is replete with information about teenagers who engage in sexual acts, become pregnant, are sexually abused, and contract sexually transmitted diseases. Dr. Thomas also discusses the coping methods teenagers use, and he describes the types of sex education programs in which students are most likely to participate. Dozens of case studies illustrate how problems of students' sexual behavior can differ from one incident to another depending on the teenagers' ages, family backgrounds, school settings, and the culture of the surrounding communities. Thomas concludes the book by summarizing the recent past and speculating about the likely status of sex in schools in the years ahead.

Justice and health care : selected essays

2011-01-26T07:35:00.000-08:00

Title: Justice and health care : selected essays

Author: Allen Buchanan

Pages: 259

Call Number: KF3821 .B83 2009

Synopsis: In this volume Allen Buchanan collects ten of his most influential essays on justice and healthcare and connects the concerns of bioethicists with those of political philosophers, focusing not just on the question of which principles of justice in healthcare ought to be implemented, but also on the question of the legitimacy of institutions through which they are implemented. With an emphasis on the institutional implementation of justice in healthcare, Buchanan pays specialattention to the relationship between moral commitments and incentives. The volume begins with an exploration of the difficulties of specifying the content of the right to healthcare and of identifying those agents and institutions that are obligated to help ensure that the right thus specified is realized, and then progresses to an examination of the problems that arise in attempts to implement the right through appropriate institutions. In the last two essays Buchanan pursues the central issues of justice in healthcare at the global level, exploring the idea ofhealthcare as a human right and the problem of assigning responsibilities for ameliorating global health disparities. Taken together, the essays provide a unique and consistent position on a wide range of issues, including conflicts of interest in clinical practice and the claims of medical professionalism, the nature and justification for the right to health care, the relationship between responsibility for healthcare and the nature of the healthcare system, and the problem of global health disparities. The result is an approach to justice in healthcare that will facilitate more productive interactionbetween the normative analysis of philosophers and the policy work of economists, lawyers, and political scientists.

The art of learning to teach : creating professional narratives

2011-01-26T07:15:00.000-08:00

Title: The art of learning to teach : creating professional narratives

Author: Mary Beattie

Pages: 182

Call Number: LB2157.A3 B39 2007

Synopsis: For courses in Student Teaching and Field Experience. nbsp; The goal of this text is to help teachers to create and recreate their professional knowledge through reflection and inquiry.nbsp; Readers are given the opportunity to examine and consider a variety of possible responses to teaching and learning situations, and to relate their thinking to their own experience and developing professional knowledge.nbsp; Readers are invited to reflect and respond individually andnbsp; collaboratively to what they read, and to document their reflections, responses, and ongoing inquiry.nbsp; In this way, teachers can use what they learn to build their own unique professional knowledge in teaching, and to plan their future actions and professional practices.

The practice of school reform : lessons from two centuries

2011-01-26T07:12:00.000-08:00

Title: The practice of school reform : lessons from two centuries

Author: James Nehring

Pages: 140

Call Number: LA212 .N44 2009

Synopsis: Former high school teacher, school leader, activist, consultant, and now professor of education James Nehring combines vivid case studies with practical suggestions to describe how the system works to thwart good schools and what educators can do to improve them. In this book he paints the big picture of school reform in the United States, deftly distilling broad cultural patterns into useful advice for reform-minded educators. Bringing history alive through the carefully rendered stories of five schools past and present that have successfully swum against the mainstream, Nehring shows how educators can overcome the lie of the quick fix through mindful adaptation. The Practice of School Reform is a highly readable diagnosis of some of education's deepest ills and provides practical prescriptions that can empower educators to remedy them.

American swastika : inside the white power movement's hidden spaces of hate

2011-01-19T07:16:00.001-08:00

Title: American swastika : inside the white power movement's hidden spaces of hate

Author: Pete Simi and Robert Futrell

Pages: 167

Call Number: E184.A1 S599 2010

Synopsis: "American Swastika takes readers through hidden enclaves of hate in America, exploring how White Supremacy movements thrive nationwide, even as the country on the surface advocates racial equality. The authors explain the difference between movements such as the KKK, the Aryan Nation, and Skinheads, among others, then discuss the various ways White Supremacists cultivate, maintain, and spread their beliefs, largely under the radar of most Americans." "Authors Pete Simi and Robert Futrell draw on over a decade of research and interviews, from the infamous Hayden Lake Aryan compound in Northern Idaho, to private homes in L.A., to hate music concerts around the country. Through descriptive case studies, the authors look at hate in the home, talking with parents who aim to raise "little Hitler" and discussing the impact home schooling and cultural isolation can have on children. The authors also describe Aryan crash pads, Bible studies, and rituals, take readers through the hate music scene from underground bars to massive rallies, and examine how the Internet has shaped communication and created disturbing new virtual communities."

Questioning the veil : open letters to Muslim women

2011-01-19T07:12:00.000-08:00

Title: Questioning the veil : open letters to Muslim women

Author: Marnia Lazreg

Pages: 156

Call Number: HQ1170 .L39 2009

Synopsis: Across much of the world today, Muslim women of all ages are increasingly choosing to wear the veil. Is this trend a sign of rising piety or a way of asserting Muslim pride? And does the veil really provide women freedom from sexual harassment? Written in the form of letters addressing all those interested in this issue,Questioning the Veilexamines the inconsistent and inadequate reasons given for the veil, and points to the dangers and limitations of this highly questionable cultural practice. Marnia Lazreg, a preeminent authority in Middle East women's studies, combines her own experiences growing up in a Muslim family in Algeria with interviews and the real-life stories of other Muslim women to produce this nuanced argument for doing away with the veil.An incisive mix of the personal and political, supported by meticulous research,Questioning the Veilwill compel all readers to reconsider their views of this controversial and sensitive topic.Lazreg stresses that the veil is not included in the five pillars of Islam, asks whether piety sufficiently justifies veiling, explores the adverse psychological effects of the practice on the wearer and those around her, and pays special attention to the negative impact of veiling for young girls. Lazreg's provocative findings indicate that far from being spontaneous, the trend toward wearing the veil has been driven by an organized and growing campaign that includes literature, DVDs, YouTube videos, and courses designed by some Muslim men to teach women about their presumed rights under the veil.An incisive mix of the personal and political, supported by meticulous research,Questioning the Veilwill compel all readers to reconsider their views of this controversial and sensitive topic.

Legacies of crime : a follow-up of the children of highly delinquent girls and boys

2011-01-19T07:09:00.000-08:00

Title: Legacies of crime : a follow-up of the children of highly delinquent girls and boys

Author: Peggy C. Giordano

Pages: 251

Call Number: HV9104 .G549 2010

Synopsis: Legacies of Crime explores the lives of seriously delinquent girls and boys who were followed over a twenty-year period as they navigated the transition to adulthood. In-depth interviews with these women and men and their children - a majority now adolescents themselves - depict the adults' economic and social disadvantages and continued criminal involvement, and in turn the unique vulnerabilities of their children. Giordano identifies family dynamics that foster the intergenerational transmission of crime, violence, and drug abuse, rejecting the notion that such continuities are based solely on genetic similarities or even lax, inconsistent parenting. The author breaks new ground in directly exploring - and in the process revising - the basic tenets of classic social learning theories, and confronting the complications associated with the parent's gender. Legacies of Crime also identifies factors associated with resilience in the face of what is often a formidable package of risks favoring intergenerational continuity.

Healing the broken mind : transforming America's failed mental health system

2011-01-19T07:06:00.000-08:00

Title: Healing the broken mind : transforming America's failed mental health system

Author: Timothy A. Kelly

Pages: 193

Call Number: RA790.6 .K448 2009

Synopsis:

Few afflictions are as frightening or as heartbreaking as mental illness. It may be a topic that many would prefer to sweep under the rug, but it is a fact of life that we as a society can and must face. We have come a long way over the past few decades in our understanding of mental illness and its potential treatments. Yet, tragically, many across the country who struggle with serious mental illness are unable to find effective, quality medical treatment. As a federal commission on mental health concluded, the system of care is in shambles. But why? And how do we fix it?

Timothy A. Kelly, former Commissioner of Virginia's Department of Mental Health, Retardation, and Substance Abuse, brings his three decades of experience as mental health commissioner, psychology professor, and clinician to bear in confronting this crisis in America's mental health care system. In clear and accessible terms, he exposes the weaknesses in the current system, examining how and why one of the world's richest and most advanced countries has allowed its most vulnerable citizens to be victimized by the very system designed to help them.

Armed with the latest statistics, a lifetime of experience, and heartrending life stories, Kelly argues that the patchwork of care traditionally employed to treat mental illness is simply not up to the task, and that what we need is profound, fundamental, and system-wide change. He then goes on to provide an easy-to-follow road map for achieving lasting transformation, centered on five recommendations for creating a truly effective mental health system of care that enables patients to achieve a lasting recovery.

Mental illness is not going to just go away, but Kelly prescribes a comprehensive plan to make treatment accessible and effective so that those who suffer can rejoin their families and their communities. He shows how a transformed system of community-based care allows those with serious mental illness to finally be able to go home.

The Blackwell companion to religion in America

2011-01-10T06:54:00.000-08:00

Title: The Blackwell companion to religion in America

Author: Philip Goff

Pages: 729

Call Number: BL2525 .B58 2010

Synopsis: Over the past two decades, the writing of American religious history has finally blossomed to embrace some of the unique voices and viewpoints that have been ignored for too long. Reflecting this rich diversity of new perspectives, The Blackwell Companion to Religion in America has gathered together dozens of prestigious scholars from across the field's generations.In a series of thought-provoking original essays, these leading contributors consider a wide range of issues relating to the presentation and explication of religious history in the United States. Topics addressed extend from religion and media to social reform; and the religious traditions explored range from Baptists and Methodists to Buddhists and Mormons. Each essay maintains an unwavering critical eye to enhance our understanding of how these subjects are discussed at different times during our history. Collectively, this groundbreaking new volume represents the most sustained effort by scholars of American religious history to provide insights into the historiography of religion and its creation within evolving political and social frameworks.Presented with clarity and eloquence, The Blackwell Companion to Religion in America provides scholars and students alike with an invaluable source of information about the diverse religious history of the United States.

Intellectuals and society

2011-01-10T06:50:00.000-08:00

Title: Intellectuals and society

Author: Thomas Sowell

Pages: 398

Call Number: HM728 .S69 2009

Synopsis: The influence of intellectuals is not only greater than in previous eras but also takes a very different form from that envisioned by those like Machiavelli and others who have wanted to directly influence rulers. It has not been by shaping the opinions or directing the actions of the holders of power that modern intellectuals have most influenced the course of events, but by shaping public opinion in ways that affect the actions of power holders in democratic societies, whether or not those power holders accept the general vision or the particular policies favored by intellectuals. Even government leaders with disdain or contempt for intellectuals have had to bend to the climate of opinion shaped by those intellectuals. Intellectuals and Society not only examines the track record of intellectuals in the things they have advocated but also analyzes the incentives and constraints under which their views and visions have emerged. One of the most surprising aspects of this study is how often intellectuals have been proved not only wrong, but grossly and disastrously wrong in their prescriptions for the ills of society-- and how little their views have changed in response to empirical evidence of the disasters entailed by those views.

Myths about suicide

2011-01-10T06:48:00.000-08:00

Title: Myths about suicide

Author: Thomas Joiner

Pages: 288

Call Number: HV6545 .J648 2010

Synopsis: Around the world, more than a million people die by suicide each year. Yet many of us know very little about a tragedy that may strike our own loved ones-and much of what we think we know is wrong. This clear and powerful book dismantles myth after myth to bring compassionate and accurate understanding of a massive international killer.Drawing on a fascinating array of clinical cases, media reports, literary works, and scientific studies, Thomas Joiner demolishes both moralistic and psychotherapeutic clicheacute;s. He shows that suicide is not easy, cowardly, vengeful, or selfish. It is not a manifestation of "suppressed rage" or a side effect of medication. Threats of suicide, far from being idle, are often followed by serious attempts. People who are prevented once from killing themselves will not necessarily try again.The risk for suicide, Joiner argues, is partly genetic and is influenced by often agonizing mental disorders. Vulnerability to suicide may be anticipated and treated. Most important, suicide can be prevented.An eminent expert whose own father's death by suicide changed his life, Joiner is relentless in his pursuit of the truth about suicide and deeply sympathetic to such tragic waste of life and the pain it causes those left behind.

Purple Heart

2011-01-10T06:43:00.000-08:00

Title: Purple Heart

Author: Patricia McCormick

Pages: 198

Call Number: PZ7.M13679 Pur 2009

Synopsis: When Private Matt Duffy wakes up in an army hospital, he's haunted by an image of a young Iraqi boy as a bullet hits his chest. Matt can't shake the feeling that he is somehow involved in the boy's death, but because of his own head injury, he struggles to put all the pieces together.

The Jewish Wife and Other Short Plays

2010-12-16T18:24:00.000-08:00

Titles: The Jewish Wife and Other Short Plays

Author: Bertolt Brecht

Pages: 176

Call Number: PT2603.R397 A218

Synopsis: These six plays represent the best and most humorous of Brecht's shorter works. The Jewish Wife is from the Fear and Misery in the Third Reich cycle of one-act plays, which, along with In Search of Justice and The Informer, chromicles the hardships of life in Nazi Germany.

Obesity Among Poor Americans

2010-12-16T18:21:00.001-08:00

Title: Obesity Among Poor Americans

Author: Patricia K. Smith

Pages: 200

Call Number: RC628 .S6415 2009

Synopsis: Obesity costs our society billions of dollars a year in lost productivity and medical expenses, roughly half of which the federal government pays through Medicare and Medicaid. We know obesity plagues the poor more than the non-poor and poor women more than poor men. Poor women make up the majority of adult welfare recipients--coincidence or causal connection?

This book investigates the controversial claim by welfare critics that public assistance programs like Food Stamps and the National School Lunch programs contribute to obesity among the poor. The author synthesizes empirical evidence from an array of disciplines--anthropology, economics, epidemiology, medicine, nutrition science, marketing, psychology, public health, sociology, and urban planning--to test this claim and to test whether other causal processes are at work.

With a lucid presentation that makes it a model for applying research to questions of social policy, the book lays out the different hypotheses and the possible causal pathways within each. The four central chapters test whether "public assistance causes obesity," "obesity causes public assistance," "poverty causes both public assistance and obesity," and "Factor X causes both." The factors in the last category that may relate to both public assistance and obesity include stress, disability, and physical abuse.

When Experiments Travel

2010-12-16T18:18:00.000-08:00

Title: When Experiments Travel

Author: Adriana Petryna

Pages: 270

Call Number: R853.C55 P48 2009

Synopsis: The phenomenal growth of global pharmaceutical sales and the quest for innovation are driving an unprecedented search for human test subjects, particularly in middle- and low-income countries. Our hope for medical progress increasingly depends on the willingness of the world's poor to participate in clinical drug trials. While these experiments often provide those in need with vital and previously unattainable medical resources, the outsourcing and offshoring of trials also create new problems. In this groundbreaking book, anthropologist Adriana Petryna takes us deep into the clinical trials industry as it brings together players separated by vast economic and cultural differences. Moving between corporate and scientific offices in the United States and research and public health sites in Poland and Brazil, When Experiments Travel documents the complex ways that commercial medical science, with all its benefits and risks, is being integrated into local health systems and emerging drug markets.

Providing a unique perspective on globalized clinical trials, When Experiments Travel raises central questions: Are such trials exploitative or are they social goods? How are experiments controlled and how is drug safety ensured? And do these experiments help or harm public health in the countries where they are conducted? Empirically rich and theoretically innovative, the book shows that neither the language of coercion nor that of rational choice fully captures the range of situations and value systems at work in medical experiments today. When Experiments Travel challenges conventional understandings of the ethics and politics of transnational science and changes the way we think about global medicine and the new infrastructures of our lives.

Swimming Against the Tide

2010-12-16T18:11:00.000-08:00

Title: Swimming Against the Tide

Author: Sandra L. Hanes

Pages: 224

Call Number: Q183.3.A1 H367 2009

Synopsis: “They looked at us like we were not supposed to be scientists,” says one young African American girl, describing one openly hostile reaction she encountered in the classroom. In this significant study, Sandra Hanson explains that although many young minority girls are interested in science, the racism and sexism in the field discourage them from pursuing it after high school. Those girls that remain highly motivated to continue studying science must “swim against the tide.”

Hanson examines the experiences of African American girls in science education using multiple methods of quantitative and qualitative research, including a web survey and vignette techniques. She understands the complex interaction between race and gender in the science domain and, using a multicultural and feminist framework of analysis, addresses the role of agency and resistance that encourages and sustains interest in science in African American families and communities.

Chemobrain

2010-12-16T06:29:00.000-08:00

Title: Chemobrain: How Cancer Therapies Can Affect Your Mind

Author: Ellen Clegg

Pages: 340

Call Number: RC271.C5 C475 2009

Synopsis: The brain fog that afflicts many people who have undergone standard or high-dose chemotherapy is known as 'chemobrain'. In this clear, concise guide for cancer patients, survivors, families, friends, and caregivers, journalist Ellen Clegg provides the latest information on this side effect of chemotherapy treatment.
Published: September 2008 Updated: February 2009

-Retrieved from www.booksinprint2.com on 12/16/10

Brain-Based Teaching in the Digital Age

2010-12-16T06:26:00.000-08:00

Title: Brain-Based Teaching in the Digital Age

Author: Marilee Sprenger

Pages: 177

Call Number: LB1057 .S66 2010

Synopsis:

Ingram: Smartphones, videogames, webcasts, wikis, blogs, texting, emoticons. What does the rapidly changing digital landscape mean for classroom teaching? How has technology affected the brain development of students? How does it relate to what we know about learning styles, memory, and multiple intelligences? How can teachers close the digital divide that separates many of them from their students?
Published: April 2010 Updated: April 2010

-Retrieved from www.booksinprint2.com on 12/16/10

Pentecostal Theology

2010-12-16T06:16:00.000-08:00

Title: Pentecostal Theology: A Theology of Encounter

Author: Keith Warrington

Pages: 350

Call Number: BX8762.Z5 W37 2008

Synopsis: Pentecostals (traditionally) do not think theologically so much as do it practically. This book will present Pentecostal theology but also the particular style of Pentecostal thinking and praxis that makes it different. Pentecostalism is not just distinct
Published: March 2008

-Retrieved from www.booksinprint2.com on 12/16/10

The Mom and Pop Store

2010-12-16T06:11:00.000-08:00

Title: The Mom and Pop Store: How the unsung Heroes of the American Economy are Surviving and Thriving

Author: Robert Spector

Pages:304

Call Number: HD62.27 .S64 2009

Synopsis:

Publisher: A celebration of the history of small, independent retail and the story of how mom & pop stores across the country still thrive on attentive customer service and renewed community support for local businesses.Business journalist Robert Spector grew up working in his family’s butcher shop in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, where he learned invaluable lessons about the independent retail business—and about life. Mom & pop stores have always brought people together, fostering a sense of neighborhood identity and camaraderie, and are the glue that connects people in big cities and small towns alike.Long fascinated by the “direct connection” people feel as merchants and customers when they do business in neighborhood shops, and responding to the growing “buy local” movement across the country, Spector sets out to discover the state, and the state of mind, of independent retailing in America. From a specialty soda pop shop in Los Angeles to a florist shop in Dayton, Ohio, from a bakery in Chicago to a bookstore in Bellingham, Washington, mom & pop store owners shared their stories with him, revealing the spirit and tenacity of the small business owner, dealing with frustration and defeat as well as triumph and success. Spector also interweaves the history of independent retailing.The Mom & Pop Storereflects the story of this country, for it embraces and cross-references every ethnic group and virtually every element of our society.
Published: April 2009 Updated: April 2009

-Retrieved from www.booksinprint2.com on 12/16/10

2010-12-15T14:04:00.000-08:00

Title: Luther Out of the Storm

Author: Derek Wilson

Pages: 399

Call Number: BR325 .W48 2010

Synopsis: The first major biography of Martin Luther in English in many years, Luther: Out of the Storm responds to recent Reformation scholarship to assess Lutherżs impact on his own and later ages. This warts-and-all account provides a vivid picture of a complex and driven manżcourageous, stubborn, rambunctious, vulgar, erudite, and opinionated. Luther: Out of the Storm is a masterful portrayal of the life of Lutherża man of tireless energy and total conviction, who changed Europe and, through Europe, the world.

2010-12-15T13:59:00.000-08:00

Title: The Leadership Jump

Author: Jimmy Long

Pages: 205

Call Number: BV652.1 .L655 2009

Synopsis: Leadership is changing. Not only are established leaders passing the baton to up-and-coming leaders, the very nature of leadership is being transformed. Veteran leader and cultural observer Jimmy Long has discerned how leadership positions and roles have changed in light of societal shifts. Authority is no longer derived from positional status but is earned from relational credibility. Leaders focus not only on tasks but on community. And leadership is less about directing followers to a particular destination, and more about empowering others on a shared journey. Existing leaders cannot write off emerging leaders because they work differently. Nor can younger leaders dismiss the contributions of those who have gone before. Here is a book that offers a positive vision for intergenerational partnership and leadership transference rather than competition. The practical tools outlined here will help existing and emerging leaders understand each others' leadership styles and collaborate fruitfully for the sake of the kingdom.

2010-12-15T13:33:00.000-08:00

Title: Launching the War on Poverty

Author: Michael Gillette

Pages: 458

Call Number: HC110.P63 G54 2010

Synopsis: Head Start, Job Corps, Foster Grandparents, College Work-Study, VISTA, Community Action, and the Legal Services Corporation are familiar programs, but their tumultuous beginning has been largely forgotten. Conceived amid the daring idealism of the 1960s, these programs originated as weapons in Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty, an offensive spearheaded by a controversial new government agency. Within months, the Office of Economic Opportunity created an array of unconventional initiatives that empowered the poor, challenged the established order, and ultimately transformed the nation's attitudes toward poverty. In Launching the War on Poverty, historian Michael L. Gillette weaves together oral history interviews with the architects of the Great Society's boldest experiment. Forty-nine former poverty warriors, including Sargent Shriver, Adam Yarmolinsky, and Lawrence F. O'Brien, recount this inside story of unprecedented governmental innovation. The interviews capture the excitement and heady optimism of Americans in the 1960s along with their conflicts and disillusionment. This new edition of Launching the War on Poverty adds the voice of Lyndon Johnson to the story with excerpts from his recently-released White House telephone conversations. In these colorful and brutally candid conversations, LBJ exercises his full arsenal of presidential powers, political leverage, and legendary persuasiveness to win one of his most difficult legislative battles. The second edition also documents how the OEO's offspring survived their volatile origins to become broadly supported features of domestic policy.

2010-12-15T13:28:00.000-08:00

Title: Obesity Among Poor Americans

Author: Patricia Kay Smith

Pages: 197

Call Number: RC628 .S6415 2009

Synopsis: Obesity costs our society billions of dollars a year in lost productivity and medical expenses, roughly half of which the federal government pays through Medicare and Medicaid. We know obesity plagues the poor more than the non-poor and poor women more than poor men. Poor women make up the majority of adult welfare recipients--coincidence or causal connection?This book investigates the controversial claim by welfare critics that public assistance programs like Food Stamps and the National School Lunch programs contribute to obesity among the poor. The author synthesizes empirical evidence from an array of disciplines--anthropology, economics, epidemiology, medicine, nutrition science, marketing, psychology, public health, sociology, and urban planning--to test this claim and to test whether other causal processes are at work.With a lucid presentation that makes it a model for applying research to questions of social policy, the book lays out the different hypotheses and the possible causal pathways within each. The four central chapters test whether "public assistance causes obesity," "obesity causes public assistance," "poverty causes both public assistance and obesity," and "Factor X causes both." The factors in the last category that may relate to both public assistance and obesity include stress, disability, and physical abuse.

Meltdown : a free-market look at why the stock market collapsed, the economy tanked, and government bailouts will make things worse

2010-12-15T08:06:00.000-08:00

Title: Meltdown : a free-market look at why the stock market collapsed, the economy tanked, and government bailouts will make things worse

Author: Thomas E. Woods Jr

Pages: 194

Call Number: HB3722 .W66 2009

Synopsis: In Meltdown, bestselling author Thomas E. Woods Jr. unearths the real causes behind the collapse of housing values and the stock market-and it turns out the culprits reside more in Washington than on Wall Street. And the trillions of dollars in federal bailouts? Our politicians' ham-handed attempts to fix the problems they themselves created will only make things much worse. Woods, a senior fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute and winner of the 2006 Templeton Enterprise Award, busts the media myths and government spin. He explains how government intervention in the economy-from the Democratic hobby horse called Fannie Mae to affirmative action programs like the Community Redevelopment Act-actually caused the housing bubble. Most important, Woods, author of the New York Times bestseller The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, traces this most recent boom-and-bust-and all such booms and busts of the past century-back to one of the most revered government institutions of all: the Federal Reserve System, which allows busy-body bureaucrats and ambitious politicians to pull the strings of our financial sector and manipulate the value of the very money we use. Meltdown also provides a timely history lesson to counter the current clamor for a new New Deal. If you want to understand what caused the financial meltdown-and why none of the big-government solutions being tried today will work-Meltdown explains it all.

The church of Facebook : how the hyperconnected are redefining community

2010-12-15T08:02:00.001-08:00

Title: The church of Facebook : how the hyperconnected are redefining community

Author: Jesse Rice

Pages: 231

Call Number: HM742 .R53 2009

Synopsis: This timely release explores the community-altering phenomenon of social networking sites and what it reveals about friendship, God, and our own hearts.With hundreds of millions of users, social networks are changing how we form relationships, perceive others, and shape our identity. Yet at its core, this movement reflects our need for community. Our longing for intimacy, connection, and a place to belong has never been a secret, but social networking offers us a new perspective on the way we engage our community. How do these networks impact our relationships? In what ways are they shaping the way we think of ourselves? And how might this phenomenon subtly reflect a God who longs to connect with each one of us?The Church of Facebookexplores these ideas and much more, offering a revealing look at the wildly popular world of online social networking.

A grand bargain for education reform : new rewards and supports for new accountability

2010-12-15T07:55:00.000-08:00

Title: A grand bargain for education reform : new rewards and supports for new accountability

Author: edited by Theodore Hershberg, Claire Robertson-Kraft

Pages: 270

Call Number: LB2806.22 .G73 2009

Synopsis: Considerable consensus has been built around the notion that a high quality teacher is the single-most important factor in a child s education. A Grand Bargain for Education Reform moves the discussion to the next level, proposing new ways to evaluate and compensate the men and women who play such a crucial role in determining the fate of modern school reform efforts. --Joe Williams, director, Democrats for Education Reform

A Grand Bargain for Education Reform advocates for increasing the professionalism of teaching by working with educators as full partners in school improvement. Although I don t agree with every recommendation in the framework, the substance of focused professional development, improving teacher evaluation, enhancing career opportunities for teachers who remain in the classroom, and differentiating compensation offers educational leaders an innovative path to improved teaching and learning. --Randi Weingarten, president, American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO

This book offers a dynamic collection of authors, whose combined experience and expertise is unmatched. Their collective message makes this book a good blueprint that school communities can use to build systems that will lead to great success for schools and children. --Gerald L. Zahorchak, Pennsylvania Secretary of Education

Unequal by design : high-stakes testing and the standardization of inequality

2010-12-15T07:49:00.000-08:00

Title: Unequal by design : high-stakes testing and the standardization of inequality

Author: Wayne Au

Pages: 199

Call Number: LB3051 .A86 2009

Synopsis: Unequal By Design critically examines high-stakes standardized testing in order to illuminate what is really at stake for students, teachers, and communities negatively affected by such testing. This thoughtful analysis traces standardized testing's origins in the Eugenics and Social Efficiency movements of the late 19 th and early 20 th century through itscurrent use as the central tool for national educational reform via No Child Left Behind. By exploring historical, social, economic, and educational aspects of testing, author Wayne Au demonstrates that these tests are not only premised on the creation of inequality, but that their structures are inextricably intertwined with social inequalities that exist outside of schools.

Desert

2010-12-09T19:07:00.000-08:00

Title: Desert

Author: J. M. G. Le Clezio

Pages: 352

Call Number: PQ2672.E25 D413 2009

Synopsis: "Desert is a novel composed of two alternating narratives, set in counterpoint. The first takes place in the desert between 1909 and 1912 and evokes the migration of a young adolescent boy, Nour, and his people, the Blue Men, notorious warriors of the desert. Driven from their lands by French colonial soldiers, Nour's tribe has come to the valley of the Saguiet El Hamra to seek the aid of the great spiritual leader known as Water of the Eyes. The religious chief sends them out from the holy city of Smara into the desert to travel still further. Spurred on by thirst, hunger, and suffering, Nour's tribe and others flee northward in the hopes of finding a land that can harbor them at last." The second narrative relates the contemporary story of Lalla, a descendant of the Blue Men. Though she is an orphan living in a shantytown known as the Project near a coastal city in Morocco, the blood of her proud, obstinate tribe runs in her veins. All too soon, Lalla must flee to escape a forced marriage with an older, wealthy man. She travels to France, undergoing many trials there, from working in a brothel to success as a highly paid fashion model, but she never betrays the blood of her ancestors.

Successful Societies

2010-12-09T19:03:00.000-08:00

Title: Successful Societies

Ed. Peter A. Hall and Michele Lamont

Pages: 358

Call Number: RA418 .S835 2009

Synopsis not available.

The Cambridge Companion to Seamus Heaney

2010-12-09T19:00:00.000-08:00

Title: The Cambridge Companion to Seamus Heaney

Editor: Bernard O'Donoghue

Pages: 260

Call Number: PR6058.E2 Z5745 2009

Synopsis: Seamus Heaney is a unique phenomenon in contemporary literature, as a poet whose individual volumes (such as his Beowulf translation, and individual volumes of poems such as Electric Light and District and Circle) have been high in the bestseller lists for decades. Since winning the Nobel Prize for Literature, he has come to be considered one of the most important English language poets in the world. This Companion gives an up-to-date overview of his career thus far, and of his reception in Ireland, England and around the world. Its distinguished contributors offer detailed readings of all his major publications, in poetry, prose and translation. The essays further explore the central themes of his poetry, his relations with other writers, and his prose writing. Designed for students, this volume will also have much to interest and inform the general reader and admirer of Heaney's unique poetic voice.

Theodore Seuss Geisel

2010-12-09T18:56:00.000-08:00

Title: Theodore Seuss Geisel

Author: Donald E. Pease

Pages: 178

Call Number: PS3513.E2 Z794 2010

Synopsis: Dr. Seuss' infectious rhymes, his blue-tufted, strong-willed creatures, and his knack for pithy, roundabout plots have been entertaining children--and adults--for decades. And as biographer Donald Pease shows, the seemingly haphazard trajectory of Theodor Geisel's life bears a close resemblance to the zigzag plot lines of his children's books--by turns a cartoonist, ad agency artist (for Flit bug killer), author, caricaturist, documentary-film writer and producer, political cartoonist, and editor. Pease follows Geisel's life from his childhood in Massachusetts, to his sacking from the editorship of Dartmouth's humor magazine, to the publication of And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street--after 17 rejections--which finally launched him on the career for which he is best known. Given unprecedented access to Dartmouth's extensive Geisel holdings, Pease captures this life in full as he offers fresh insights into the sources of Geisel's creativity, from his surreal images to his anti-authoritarian stance and slapstick humor.

Luther

2010-12-09T10:27:00.000-08:00

TITLE: Luther: Out of the Storm

AUTHOR: Derek Wilson

PAGES: 399

CALL NUMBER: BR325 .W48 2010

SYNOPSIS: The first major biography of Martin Luther in English in many years, Luther: Out of the Storm responds to recent Reformation scholarship to assess Lutherżs impact on his own and later ages. This warts-and-all account provides a vivid picture of a complex and driven manżcourageous, stubborn, rambunctious, vulgar, erudite, and opinionated. Luther: Out of the Storm is a masterful portrayal of the life of Lutherża man of tireless energy and total conviction, who changed Europe and, through Europe, the world.

The Worship Architect

2010-12-09T10:22:00.000-08:00

TITLE: The Worship Architect: A Blueprint for Designing Culturally Relevant and Biblically Faithful Services

AUTHOR: Constance M. Cherry

PAGES: 302

CALL NUMBER: BV15 .C42 2010

SYNOPSIS: There are many books available on the topic of worship today, but few provide a comprehensive, practical method for worship design. Constance M. Cherry, a worship professor and practitioner, provides worship leaders with credible blueprint plans for successfully designing worship services that foster meaningful conversation with God and the gathered community. Readers will learn how to create services that are faithful to Scripture, historically conscious, relevant to God, Christ-centered, and engaging for worshipers of all ages in the twenty-first century. The book sets forth basic principles concerning worship design and demonstrates how these principles are conducive to virtually any style of worship practiced today in a myriad of Christian communities. It will also work well as a guide for worship-planning teams in local churches and provide insight for worship students, pastors, and church leaders involved in congregational worship.